Changes
by GCgurl21
Summary: Hermione tries to make some changes in her Hogwarts life for her seventh year, but will anyone allow her to? Will unexpected people create chaos in her life? Will anything go the way she wants it to this year? I guess you'll have to read to find out!
1. The Beginning of the End

**Chapter 1: The Beginning of the End**

Hermione led a whole different life in the muggle world than she did in the wizarding world. Her friends at school would probably expect that she held up in her room for three months during the summer, solely concentrating on her homework, and once she was finished, she would continue to read until it was September first and time to take the Hogwarts Express back to school. She led quite the opposite life actually. Don't misunderstand, she definitely felt the same way about homework here as she did at school, it was very important, but she finished that up as soon as she could. She worked on her homework early in the mornings, went to soccer practice and/or games in the afternoons, and partied it up with her friends almost every night.

Hermione was popular in the muggle world. She was an awesome soccer player, she was a girlie-girl, and she was beautiful, even though she would be the first to deny it. She loved to party and hangout with her friends, but she mostly loved to play soccer. She had joined a girls team when she was ten-years-old, a year before she found out she would be going to Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She continued to play every summer since then, except for that one year she went to the Quidditch World Cup with Harry and Ron, and she was currently playing the last minute in the final game of the season before her seventh year in school.

"There she goes; she's on a break away down the field. She shoots…she SCORES! Hermione Granger has scored the winning goal. The Hot Shots win the finial!" The announcer screamed excitedly over the loud speaker.

The team ran to Hermione and smashed her into the middle of a group hug. After a short celebration on the field, the girls made their way to the sidelines and surprised Tony, their coach, by dumping two half-full, freezing cold water coolers over his head.

"Must you do that every time?" he asked shaking off like a dog as the team laughed hysterically and staggered over to their parents.

"Of course Tony. Do you really expect anything less?" 'Mione said winking at the young coach and flashing him a bright smile.

"Not from you I guess I don't" he laughed and gave her a rivaling smile.

"I can't believe we won, well I can believe it, but oh mum, dad, we won! It was brilliant."

"You were brilliant sweetheart," Jane Granger said giving her daughter a slight squeeze. "Now, let's get you home and washed up before dinner, ok?" she said trying not to seem disgusted at the sweat mark her daughter had left on her brand new, pink silk tank top.

As soon as they left the game, Hermione gushed over the win of her soccer final to her parents all the way home.

As soon as Frank Granger parked the car in the driveway, Hermione bounded up the stairs, through the garage door, dumping her cleats outside of the door, and up to her room to take a shower. She walked through her room to her connecting bathroom, discarding her sweaty purple and teal soccer uniform all over the floor as she went. She turned on the hot water and then stepped in as soon as the steam started to rise above the curtain. The hot water soothed her aching muscles and washed away the dirt and sweat from her previous activities. She washed her long brown hair with her vanilla plum shampoo, and washed her body with her favorite cool moisture body wash.

Finally, after she had used up most of the hot water, she stepped out of the shower and wrapped a blue fluffy towel around herself. She pranced to her closet, searching for the perfect outfit to wear. Nick, her boyfriend of the past two years, was taking her out for their anniversary tonight. She shuffled through her closet, finally deciding on a jean mini skirt, which showed off her long tan legs, and a baby pink halter top, which clung to her medium sized breasts and showed off her well toned stomach and the pink dangly belly button ring that she had bought earlier that day.

She walked back into her bathroom, dried and curled her hair, so that it fell down her back in large bouncy spirals. Next she applied natural looking make-up and added the finishing touch of baby pink lip gloss. She riffled through her jewelry box, finding her silver hoop earrings and the silver tear drop necklace that Nick had given to her on their first anniversary, all she had left to do was to find some shoes. As soon as she decided on a pair of baby pink flip flops, the door bell rang. She squealed at the though of seeing her boyfriend.

Nick has just got back today from a month long vacation in Hawaii with his family, and she was leaving for school tomorrow. She was going to make this anniversary one neither of them would forget. She grabbed his present and ran excitedly down the stairs.

There he was. He stood at about 6'3", had dark blond hair, dark tanned skin, and piercing blue eyes. He wore a short sleeve, blue and green plaid, button down shirt, open, over a white wife-beater, long khaki cargo shorts, and his favorite black flip flops. He was gorgeous, and perfect in everyway. He flashed her a lopsided smile and she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him soundly on the lips.

"Hey 'Mione," he pulled back from her kiss.

"Hey babe," she purred, "you ready?"

"Yeah, let's go." He said unenthusiastically, but Hermione was too excited to notice.

"Bye mum, bye dad," she yelled towards the unknown destination of her parents.

"Have fun you two," Mr. and Mrs. Granger yelled from the kitchen.

They walked outside, and Nick opened the door to his black convertible eclipse for Hermione. He silently drove them downtown, to her favorite pizza place.

"Hey 'Mione, Hey Nick, How was Hawaii?" Drew, Nick's best friend greeted them.

"Hey man! Good to see ya. Hawaii was great," Nick hugged his best friend, in the way that guys do, "Hey, uh, could you seat us in the back somewhere?" he whispered to Drew.

"Sure, right this way," he led the couple to the back, secluded corner of the restaurant.

"Enjoy, Megan will be with you guys in just a minute." He said turning away and walking back up towards the front to greet some more people who had just walked in.

Nick was fidgeting uncontrollably. He was spinning his utensils on the table, drumming his fingers on whatever he could, and his eyes would dart all over the restaurant, looking anywhere but at Hermione. Hermione watched him dreamily; she never noticed his fidgeting, or the fact that he would never let his eyes rest upon her.

'Oh thank God!' he sighed as he noticed that Megan was on her way over to the table.

"Hey guys," she was always a very excited girl. Her shoulder length curly brown hair bounced as she moved her head from side to side. "Can I get you anything? Oh my gosh, it's been so long since I've seen you guys. I'm so excited," she rambled on bubbly.

"Hey Meg," Hermione jumped out of her seat and threw her arms around her best friend. "I've missed you so much. I feel like it's been forever since we hung out. Next time I'm home we'll have to go out."

"Yeah we will. His a few clubs, have a few parties," she listed, "you know, the usual." She smirked at the though. "So anyways, the usual? One iced tea, one Dr. Pepper, and a large pepperoni?"

"Sounds good." 'Mione said rubbing her stomach, "And, could you rush it? I'm starving."

"Sure thing, be right back," she spun on her heal and departed off towards the kitchen.

"So baby," Mione reached across the table and grabbed Nick's hand, "How was your trip?"

"It was good," he fidgeted, still trying no to look her in the eyes.

"Well, what did you do?"

"Basically just hung out on the beach. You know the usual." His eyes had a look of pain in them as they finally came to rest on hers. He needed to tell her, should he do it now? Should he wait until after dinner?

"I love you." She said with a sweet smile. She had never said that to him before. "I've been thinking about it a lot while you were gone, and I do. I love you." Why was he looking at her like that? It was not that crazy, was it? They had been together for two years. "You…"

"'Mione," he had to do this now. "I need to talk to you." He dropped her hand.

"Ok," she was confused. This did not sound good.

"Look 'Mione," how was he supposed to do this? "I met someone else." Her face dropped, and he could se her eyes filling with tears. "I met her while I was in Hawaii, and she lives here." The look on her face was killing him, "I'm sorry," he finished quietly and looked down at the table.

"I…I…I…" the tears started to silently roll down her cheeks. "I…"

"I'm sorry 'Mione, I wish it didn't have to end like this." She did not say a word; she just got up, set a package in front of him and walked away. He just sat there and watched the most beautiful woman he knew walk out of his life. He sighed as he ran his fingers along the edges of the shiny red paper of the package she had laid in front of him. He opened the card that was laying on the top, and read it silently to himself.

_My dear sweet Nick-_

_I love you. I love you more than you will ever know. I am sorry that I made you wait so long to hear that, but I hope that we can make this night a night that neither of us will ever forget. Happy Anniversary Baby. I love you._

_Love always, Mione_

"God what have I done?" he then picked up the package, and carefully unwrapped it. There staring back at him was a picture of him carrying 'Mione on his back, it was the picture Megan took of them after her first soccer game of the summer. That was right before he left for Hawaii, which is where he screwed up the best thing that had ever happened to him. Why couldn't he have been patient and waited for her, why did he have to sleep with that slut Casey three months ago, and why, why in the world did she have to get pregnant?


	2. Making Changes

**I own nothing. This chapter was a bit hard to get out, but it was mainly for transition, let me know what ya'll think. Thanks to those of you who reviewed last time. This is a Draco/Hermione story, it may take a bit, but they will get together. **

**Chapter 2: Making Changes**

The silent tears rolling down Hermione's cheeks glistened under the orange glow of the setting sun. She instinctively wrapped her arms around her small quivering body as she walked back towards her house, and "why questions" filled her head. 'Why am I not good enough for him? Why did I make him wait so long to be with me? Why would he do this to me? Why did she not see this coming? Why did he have to do this now, hadn't they been happy together the past two years? Why today, why on their anniversary of all days?'

"WHY?" she accidentally screamed out loud, making the people around her look at her strangely.

She had found her way home by now, not quite sure how, as her eyes were all blurry from crying. She walked through the white front door to her large blue house. She was leaving the black starless night, and entering the brightly lit entry way of her parent's house, the house she had grown up in.

"Hi honey," she heard the faint voice of her father coming from the kitchen.

"Hi," she choked back a sob so as not to intrigue her parent's knowledge of tonight's events.

"You're home early. Come in here and tell us about…" Mrs. Granger stood up and embraced her daughter as soon as she had entered the room, and saw her tear stained face. "Oh honey, what happened?" She ushered Hermione by her shoulders towards the kitchen table, gently sitting her down in the empty chair between her and her husband.

"It didn't go well," she tried to hold back her tears, but failed miserably, "he met someone else. I said I loved him, and he said he met someone else." She broke down, dropping her head into her hands and sobbing so hard that she could barely breathe. Her parents tried to comfort her, but it just made her feel worse. "I'm going to go upstairs," she stood up and headed towards the stairs.

"Goodnight sweetheart," her father said sweetly, "I'll come and get you up tomorrow morning about thirty minutes before we need to leave for the train, alright?"

"Okay," she said quietly and made her way up stairs and into her room to pack.

Quietly, she clicked her bedroom door shut and then sat in the middle of her queen sized bed, tucking her feet underneath her. She absentmindedly ran her fingers over the soft baby blue material of her down comforter, as she looked around her room, taking it all in since this was her last night here for a while. She quickly got up, turned on her stereo, and started packing her school trunk, for fear of losing herself again. She was not going to let this bother her anymore at least that is what she kept telling herself. She was listening to Ryan Cabrera's CD, singing to "Exit to Exit" at the moment, not realizing the connection between her life and the song, as she packed her stuff, letting all of her thoughts melt away.

_Was it the little things I left unsaid? The thoughts are wrapped around my head, in love, in life. Could it be our time was incomplete, someone that's just bent to need enough inside. And I've lost my direction, where do I turn? You wanted something more than this, fell down for someone else's kiss. I'm lost without your light, so I drive, I don't know why. But I drive, from exit to exit_

She had neatly packed all of her books and school supplies, robes and uniform, her soccer gear and ball, and was not moving onto her closet to figure out what she would be bringing with her.

As she stood there with her hands resting on her hips, staring into her closet, she made a silent pact with herself. She was going to make some changes in her school life. She was going to show Hogwarts the side of her they had never seen, the real Hermione Granger. As she decided this, she pulled down her mini skirts, tight jeans, and all of her shirts. All that was left hanging in her closet was her baggy clothes, the Hermione she needed to leave behind. After packing her clothes and shoes into her trunk, she lain out a dark blue, sandblasted, jean, pleated mini skirt and a teal blue halter top, setting them on her desk chair so that she could wear them tomorrow. When she was all finished, she stripped and climbed into the shower to wash away all of the stresses of the earlier night.

After a short, hot shower, Hermione stalked into her room, dressed in a pair of red plaid pajama pants and a red, spaghetti strap, tank top, and climbed into the warmth of her bed. Before falling asleep, she rolled over to turn of her bed side lamp, and noticed her copy of the picture she had given to Nick earlier that night. She quickly placed the picture face down, turned off the light, and rolled back over, silently crying herself to sleep.

"Hermione, it's time to get up. We need to leave in thirty minutes," Hermione heard her father's voice from her open doorway.

"Okay, I'm up," she stretched as she climbed out of her bed and headed into the bathroom, grabbing the clothes she had laid out the night before and taking them with her.

Once she was dressed, she curled her hair, so that it fell down a bit past the middle of her back in large ringlets, put on a bit of natural looking make-up and black eyeliner, and then walked into her room to find the black flip flops she knew would go perfectly with her outfit. After she had found them underneath her bed, she skipped downstairs and into the kitchen where she found both of her parents sitting at the table reading the newspaper and drinking their coffee.

"Morning mum, morning dad," she said in a cheerful voice and her parents looked at her blankly.

"Morning honey," her father finally spoke, "are you almost ready to go? We should probably be leaving in a few minutes," he was careful not to ask about the events of last night, or any emotions that might go along with those events.

"Ready whenever you are," she said with a smile. "All I have to do is get my trunk and my Head Girl's badge from my room, and then I am set." On that note, she ran upstairs and a few minutes later, she was loudly dragging her trunk behind her and her head girl's badge was proudly displayed on her chest. "Alright, let's go. Bye mum, I love you, I promise to write."

"Okay honey, I'll miss you," her mother said with a tear in her eye. "I love you too." Hermione gave her mother a hug and then turned and followed her father out the door. She climbed into the car, as her father shoved her trunk into the backseat.

They had a short and fairly silent ride to the train station. Mr. Granger was nervous to talk to his daughter, unlike he had ever been before, because he was afraid to say something about last night that might make her cry, ruining their last few moments together.

"Goodbye honey, have a good time at school," Mr. Granger said after loading her trunk onto the cart and turning around to embrace his only daughter.

"I love you dad,"

"I love you too," he said pulling back from their hug and watching her walk away from him. His little girl had grown up so much, he felt as if she really did not need him anymore. But he silently got back into the car, to avoid the people around to see him cry, and quickly drove off back towards the house where his wife was waiting for him.

Afraid to look back, Hermione kept walking towards platform 9 ¾ and once reaching the platform, she pushed her cart through the wall quickly, so as not to draw attention to herself. She slowed down as soon as she was on the platform. There it was, the beautiful, red Hogwarts Express, just as she had remembered it. While staring at the train, Hermione was delusional to the fact that all eyes were on her, everyone was wondering who this girl could be, they swore they had never seen a girl this beautiful who went to Hogwarts.

As Hermione let her eyes wonder around the platform, she noticed three boys standing a few feet away from her, two of them facing the same way that she was. Blaise Zabini stood facing her, his piercing almost black eyes kept flicking towards her, but she was only noticing how good he looked and not the fact that he had seen her. He stood at about 6'1", had black short curly hair, and you could see that he was very muscular through his tight black t-shirt, which went just to the waist of his dark blue jeans, and above his three layer studded belt. In front of him stood Ron Weasley, with his mop of red hair and his muscular frame standing at about 6'1". He was wearing a pair of khaki shorts that went just past his knees, and a red t-shirt. Standing next to him was Harry Potter, who was a bit shorter, only standing at about 5'11", but still had unruly black hair. Harry was also wearing long khaki shorts but had on a green shirt instead. Harry was never as muscular as the other boys, but he had a very well toned body, since he was seeker of the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

In the past, Hermione would have been baffled by the fact that Harry and Ron were conversing with a Slytherin, but since the war had ended and Ron, Blaise, and Malfoy had helped Harry kill Voldermort, at the beginning of last year, the houses had become more unified and Harry and Ron had given both Blaise and Malfoy a chance, pretty soon forming a friendship between themselves and Blaise. Malfoy, well they still had a long way to go before an actual friendship was formed between them, as they had 5 years of history between them and old prejudices die hard, but it seemed as if he was trying. Hermione was a different story, she and Blaise got along great, but Malfoy, she just could not seem to put the past behind her, and he seemed to be having the same difficulties.

She had now pushed her cart to where a pile of trunks where being loaded onto the train, and swayed her hips as she walked over to talk to her friends.

"Hey guys," she said flashing a huge smile towards the boys as she joined their small circle.

"Hi," they quickly glanced at her and turned back to their conversation, "HERMIONE?" the three boys said slowing turning their heads back towards her and dropping their jaws. "Is that you?"

"Of course it's me, don't be silly," she said, not realizing that she looked that much different, "Why are you staring at me like that?"

"Well Hermione," Blaise said sliding his arm around her shoulders, "you are hot. Not that you weren't before, but look at yourself. Wow!"

"Thanks Blaise," she said smiling at him, "but I don't really look that different do I?"

"Just the clothes, but…but…" Ron said, his mouth still hanging open as he stuttered, "never mind," he had given up on saying anything remotely intelligent.

As the boys continued their conversation with Hermione, Lavender, Parvati, and Ginny walked up to their boyfriends. Lavender and Ron had been dating since the end of fifth year, as had Harry and Parvati. But Blaise had started dating Ginny around Christmas time last year, even though they had liked each other for much longer than that. Once the girls had joined the circle, the six stared to draw their conversation away from Hermione and she began to get that third wheel feeling, so she turned to get onto the train but collided with something solid and fell backwards and fell to the ground.

"Let me help you," a familiar voice said from above her, but it was a nice tone, not the mean tone she was used to hearing from him. She looked up to see a large hand reaching towards her and she held it pulling herself up. "Sorry, I guess I didn't expect you to turn around so quickly."

"No, I'm sorry, I wasn't…" as she was standing up, she took in every aspect of him. From his black converse sneakers to his faded blue jeans, and she was now staring at the Head Boy's badge which was pinned to the chest of his tight baby blue t-shirt. She quickly looked into the stormy grey eyes, which had strands of platinum blond hair in them, of "Malfoy?"

"I'm sorry," he looked at her with a confused look on his face as he looked her up and down trying to figure out if he knew her, "Do I know you? You look familiar, but I can't quite place it."

'Wow, he really doesn't recognize me; do I really look that different? Wait, I could use this to my advantage, and oh who am I kidding? He will figure it out and then he would just torment me even more.' She thought to herself before her thoughts were interrupted by Blaise's voice from behind her.

"Granger looks good huh Malfoy?" Blaise winked at him and received a playful punch in the arm from Ginny.

"Granger?" was all Draco could seem to come up with at that moment.

"Yeah, it's me," she said flashing him a smile, but was afraid that it came out as a pained look.

"Watch yourself next time Mudblood," he said resorting back to the old name he had not called her in a while trying to sound mean, but it came out as a mix between kind and obnoxious. He scowled at the fact that he failed at his attempt to hurt her and he walked past her to get onto the train.

"Don't worry about him Hermione," Blaise said giving her a hug from behind, "he is just trying to hold up the bad boy front, he won't be able to do it much longer."

"Thanks," she said trying not to let the mudblood comment get to her, "I am going to go and find a compartment now, I'll meet up with you guys later." She climbed up the stairs and onto the train, heading to the bathroom before she found a compartment to sit in.

She walked down the isle, opening compartments to find her friends, but when she came across them, they were sitting with Malfoy.

"Hey Hermione, we were wondering when you would find us," Ginny said happily, "Come sit down, I saved you a seat." Hermione looked at the seat between Ginny and Malfoy and decided better of sitting there.

"Oh, I was um, looking for someone real quick, I'll, I'll meet up with you guys later," she stammered and quickly shut the compartment door, continuing her walk through the isle and finding an empty compartment to sit in. 'Why do I always have to let him get to my so badly?' she thought to herself as she pulled her knees up to her chest, wrapped her arms around her knees, and laid her head down. 'Wait, I thought I was going to show Hogwarts the real Hermione, this is not what she would do. She wouldn't cower here in her own little compartment, and she definitely wouldn't let that ferret get to her.' She quickly stood up and walked back to the compartment where her friends resided.

"Hey guys, sorry about that," she said walking into the compartment and plopping herself down between Ginny and Malfoy. "Lookin' good this year Malfoy, too bad you're still an ass hole like always." She said grinning evilly at him and then turning around to talk to Ginny and Blaise.

"Yeah…well…" Draco stuttered, unsure how to reply to unexpected new attitude towards him, "whatever Mudblood."

"Oh, you have to resort to the old taunting huh?" she said turning back around to face him, staring directly into his eyes, "Couldn't come up with anything new? Your words don't hurt me Malfoy, come find me when you've come up with something new."

Draco just sat there staring open mouthed at her, as was everyone else in the compartment, as she turned her back on him and continued to talk with Ginny for the rest of the train ride. He would get her back; he would definitely get her back. That was, as soon as he got the thoughts about this new Hermione out of his mind.


	3. Surprises

**I still own nothing of Harry Potter or any songs that may pop their way into my story. Thanks to those of you who reviewed. (Burning Lily- Thanks for the thoughts. She is depressed; she just is trying to push it away for the moment. I promise it will come out, slowly but surely. And you are good at trying to predict stuff that may happen, I totally had that thought already in my mind, and you may just see it happen in this chapter!) **

**Chapter 3**

There was only four to a carriage, leaving her to ride with Ginny and Blaise, the sickening lovebirds who were attached at the lips at the moment, and Malfoy, whom had been strangely quiet since she had told him off earlier on the train. Quiet was not good. No, quiet caused her thoughts to drift to things she did not want to think about, people whom she was trying to forget.

'I wonder what Nick is doing right now?' She thought sadly, staring out into the black night, as a single tear rolled down her cheek. 'No Hermione, don't think about him.' She scolded herself. 'Don't cry, you told yourself you were over this, over him.' She was repeatedly blinking back tears, and wildly wiping away the few that had escaped down her cheeks. She glanced around the carriage to make sure no one had seen her cry. Blaise and Ginny were still making out, and Malfoy was fiddling with his hands, she was not sure if was a nervous fiddle or if he was just bored, and he was staring out the window on the opposite side of the carriage as her. She sighed in relief, letting out a breath that she did not know she was holding in, 'that would be great, letting them see me cry. What a great way to start out the year that would have been.'

"Are any of you going to get out? Does no one pay attention? We have been sitting here, stopped for like a minute!" she was rudely awakened from her thoughts of self-pity by the annoying, whiney voice of Draco Malfoy, and all she could do was look at him and roll her eyes. "Move Granger!"

"Sorry Malfoy, I didn't realize you had NO patients," she barked at him and proceeded to gracefully climb out of the carriage, hitting Ginny on the knee as she went, as an indication to them that they had arrived. As soon as she softly landed on the ground, she smoothed her skirt, and without looking back, she sashayed her way up the castle steps and into the great hall for the feast. She was soon joined at the Gryffindor table by Ginny, who was making goo-goo eyes across the great hall at Blaise. 'Honestly, don't they ever give it a rest?' she thought to herself as Harry, Parvati, Ron, and Lavender sat down at the table across from her, also quite enthralled with their significant others. 'My life is a bloody mess,' she thought to herself, resting her elbow on the table and placing her chin in her hand, 'when is this stupid thing going to begin?'

The welcoming feast began as always, the sorting of the first years, Dumbledore making his yearly announcements about the forbidden forest among other things, and the announcement of the Heads. She stood proudly, as did Malfoy, and the students applauded them.

"I have one more announcement before we begin the feast," Dumbledore said, and Hermione looked towards him in confusion. "We have a new student this year. He is a seventh year, and he has transferred here from an American school." Hermione was straining her neck to get a look at the new student from America who had just walked through the doors, all of the students around her had stood up and were clapping wildly, but she was just too short to see around them. "Students, please sit down, I would like to introduce to you…"

Hermione did not hear the name which was introduced to the waiting crowd, as her jaw had dropped, her eyes went wide, and she visibly paled, the only word that came to mind she whispered, "Nick?"

It was now nearing the end of the meal, and Hermione just sat there, stunned throughout the whole of dinner. Her plate sat empty, in front of her, and she just starred off into space. Thoughts raced wildly through her head, 'Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god! 'What did I do to deserve this? Wait, Nick's a wizard? Oh, it doesn't matter that he is a wizard, it only matters that he is here right now and this is totally going to ruin my plan of getting over him. What is that saying? Out of sight, out of mind? Well, that definitely isn't going to happen now! Why me?' her head hit the table with a loud thump, and everyone around her stopped eating to stare at her.

"Hermione, are you okay?" Ginny said worriedly, putting her hand over Hermione's.

"Yes, no, I don't know," she mumbled, not picking her head up off of the table.

"You haven't eaten anything 'Mione," Ron said from across the table, of course this was what worried him the most since his mind was always on food.

"I'm not hungry," she mumbled finally lifting her head to stare blankly at her friends. "I think I am going to go to Gryffindor tower, and go to sleep in my room now."

"Hermione," Harry said apprehensively, "were you not listening? You and Malfoy, being the heads, have to share a dormitory this year. You are supposed to meet Dumbledore after dinner so he can show you where to go."

"Oh," she said looking confused, "I must have zoned out I guess. I guess I'll just wait here then." She gently placed her head back on the table, as the last time had left her head starting to pound.

"Oh, did you see that new boy Hermione?" Lavender asked her anxiously, "He is so cute!" she ended with a squeal. "Not that I am interesting in him, Ron, I just think that maybe Hermione should try for him." With that, Hermione burst out into tears and ran from the table, and out into the hallway. "Was it something I said?" Lavender asked.

As soon as Hermione pushed open the doors, she ran into a secluded corner and sunk down to the ground. She pulled her knees up close to her chest, buried her face in her knees, and sobbed quietly.

"Hermione," she heard the gently male voice and a large hand lay itself on her leg. "I mean, get up Granger, get up and stop your crying, Dumbledore needs to show us our room, and I don't have time to wait for you to get yourself together," he had retracted his hand from her as quickly as he had touched her, and his voice became annoyed.

She wiped her tears, and pushed herself up from off of the floor, quickly catching up to Dumbledore and Malfoy, but leaving her head to hang low as she watched her feet, afraid to look anywhere except for down.

"Watch it Granger," Malfoy said to her as she had run into him for the second time that day, "Stop running into me."

"Sorry," she mumbled quietly, not removing her eyes from her bright, pink, painted toenails, and not realizing that her apology and her quietness caught him off guard and he just stood there staring at her blankly.

"Well, here you go," Dumbledore started as he noticed the uncomfortable silence between the two, "your password is 'United', and I shall see the both of you tomorrow night at our first meeting."

The portrait of a Lion and a serpent, back to back, ignoring each other swung open and the two students walked into the room. Draco stood, taking in his surroundings, but Hermione paid no attention, she walked past him heading off up the spiral staircase to find her bedroom, a place where she would have some peace, right now all she wanted to do was go to sleep.

'Maybe I am asleep," she thought to herself, 'Maybe I am asleep and this is all just an awful nightmare.' She reached the door marked with a gold plate that said 'H.G', and turned the handle, quickly shutting it behind her. She kicked off her flip flops, leaving them where they landed, and fell onto the soft comforter burying her face into her pillow and loudly cried herself to sleep.


	4. Could Life Get Any Worse?

**Hey Guys, thanks to all of you who reviewed. If any of you have any questions for me and want to e-mail me, my e-mail is on my profile, feel free. Hope you like this chapter, I hope to get the next one out soon! Adios!**

**Chapter 4: Could Life Get Any Worse?**

He watched her storm upstairs as soon as they entered their new common room. Unlike her, he took the time to look around their new home, the home they would have to share for the next year.

It was amazing. It was mostly done in black, gold, and silver, with the perfect accents of red and green. As soon as he walked in, he noticed the white spiral staircase, leading to a platform. Off to the left of the stairs there was a stone balcony, past two French doors, and off to the right was Hermione's bedroom, his bedroom, and a door in-between that he thought led to the bathroom. On the right hand side of the main floor, was a large stone fireplace, which already had a roaring fire going that was emitting a great heat towards him, and on either side of the fireplace, was an inlaid wooden bookshelf, filled with their own miniature library. In front of the fireplace was a large wooden coffee table that was surrounded by two, large, overstuffed, black, leather chairs and a large, black leather couch. The carpet was a cream color, the small kitchen area, (which was on the left hand side of the room) made up of a fridge, a small amount of counter space, and a couple of cupboards, had white tile with gold and silver specks covering the floor.

Once he had finished taking in his new surroundings, he kicked off his black, converse, high-top sneakers, and discarded them neatly by the portrait hole. He then walked over to the couch, and flopped down upon it, letting his thoughts wander.

"I wonder what the hell happened to Granger, she was a complete wreck tonight," Draco thought out loud as he closed his eyes as he leaned his head on the back of the couch. "Why do I care anyways? Why do I keep thinking about her?

A little voice in the back of his head told him, "probably because no other girl, or anyone for that matter, has ever stood up to you like she has. And it doesn't hurt that she is beautiful.'

"ARRRRRGGGGG!" he screamed in frustration and got up from the couch.

He pulled his baby blue t-shirt over his head, tossed it onto the couch, and began to take out his frustrations on the red Everlast punching bag that he had conjured to hang from an invisible cord in the middle of the common room. With every punch, he thought about Voldermort, his father, whom had died in the war, and Granger, the girl who had been plaguing his thoughts all day. This act became relentless, and as he grew tired, he collapsed his sweaty, half naked body onto the couch. He was breathing heavily, his eye lids began to close, and he fell into a fitful sleep.

Hermione awoke with a groan, as the sunshine poured through her open, royal blue curtains, making her squint and use her hand to shield her eyes.

"Where am I?" she thought out loud to herself, as she noticed she was in an unfamiliar room. She was lying on a tall, soft, queen-sized, four-poster bed, and she was lying face down on royal blue, silk pillow cases, which seemed a bit damp at the moment. She racked her brain for any amount of information that would hint at her whereabouts.

She stood; squishing her toes in the plush cream colored carped, and stretched her arms towards the ceiling. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a free standing, full length mirror, and went to look at herself. Her appearance was rumpled, like it was sometimes at home after she had partied too hard and then passed out. She still had on her pleated, jean mini skirt, and her teal blue halter top, which seemed a bit lopsided at the moment. Her long, curly, brown hair was a wild, tangled mess, her face was tear-stained, and her eyes were dry and bloodshot. It looked as if she had been crying, or drank too much and could not seem to remember.

Suddenly, the events from last night flooded her memory. She was at Hogwarts, she was head girl, she had to share a dormitory with Malfoy, and she had cried herself to sleep because…Nick.

'Nick was here at Hogwarts, Dumbledore had said that he transferred here from an American school.' "Nick is a wizard? Oh my god!" she felt the tears start to well up in her eyes, but she quickly blinked them back before they could fall.

She began to look around her new room, but her eyes immediately fell upon the clock and she realized that she only had an hour and a half before classes began. Noticing two doors off to the left hand side of her room, she threw one open and walked into a large, pure white bathroom; luckily it was not the closet. She discarded her shirt and skirt as she walked over to the shower and turned it on, never noticing the platinum blond relaxing in the large bathtub in the middle of the floor. He on the other hand, noticed her as soon as she had loudly thrown open the door, and he never took his eyes off of her as she did her ungraceful strip tease through the bathroom.

"Not that I might the strip show Granger," he said smirking that oh so annoying Malfoy smirk, "but do you mind? I am taking a bath here and you're ruining my relaxation."

"Oh God!" she shrieked, grabbing her shirt and covering her bare chest, leaving her still standing there in her black thong and the teal blue fabric which she was currently struggling to use to cover up her naked body from the eyes of Draco Malfoy, which still happened to be on her. "Could you at least turn around so I can get in the shower Malfoy?" she asked, disgusted with him that he was still staring at her barely clothed body.

"No one is stopping you," he could not tear his eyes away from her, his eyes were locked onto hers, and that smirk was still plastered on his face.

"Please just turn around, so I can finish getting undressed and get into the shower without you seeing me completely naked!" She was losing her temper by now, but she watched him as he leaned his head back and closed his eyes, just to make sure he was did not continue to secretly look at her.

"By the way, lookin' good this year Granger, who knew you had that body hiding somewhere on you," Draco said smiling inwardly by smirking on the outside. "Too bad you're a Mudblood, and I would never touch someone as filthy as you."

"Shut-up Ferret," she knew it was a lame comeback, but it hurt her to hear him say that more than she would let people believe. She double checked to make sure he was not looking at her, and then completely undressed and quickly stepped into the hot, steamy shower. "I'm in now, thank you," she finished dully.

Draco finished up, as he had been in the bath for an hour, and the water was becoming cold. He wrapped a green towel around his waist and walked through the connecting door and into his bedroom, unnoticed by the head girl.

His bedroom was decorated in a dark forest green, his favorite color. The head's bedrooms were exactly the same expect for the color scheme. There was a tall, queen-sized, four-poster bed on the wall across from the entrance. Next to the bay window, there was a large wooden desk, with a bookshelf atop it, opposite the wall with the bathroom door. Across the room from the window, were a large arm ware, a free-standing, full length mirror, and another door that led to a small walk-in closet.

When he entered his room, he pulled a pair of green boxers from his arm ware, putting them on and discarding his towel onto the floor. He then walked to his closet and dressed in a pair of faded blue jeans, a green ringer tee with black around the arms and neck, his school robes, and his Slytherin tie which he tied loosely around his neck. He searched around his room for his sneakers, but stopped as soon as he remembered they were by the portrait hole.

He grabbed his school bag from his desk chair, and headed into the common room to get his sneakers. He sat upon the couch tying his converse, when he heard the click of what he figured was Hermione's bedroom door. He mentally scolded himself for watching her as she made her way down the stairs. She was wearing a black, pleated, mini skirt and a red and gold layered tank top underneath her school robes. She had black, platform sandals on her feet that clicked every time she took a step, and she had her curly hair pulled half up, leaving the rest to flow beautifully down to the middle of her back, but it was covering her face at the moment, as he noticed that she was watching her feet as she walked down the stairs.

I noticed Malfoy sitting in the common room as I walked down the stairs, trying not to fall and kill myself.

'Note to self, put shoes on after walking down the stairs,' she thought while watching her feet, so as to make sure she would not trip.

"Sorry about this morning Malfoy, I was in a rush because of the time, and…" she began to rattle off as she stepped off of the last stair, but was cut off by Malfoy's voice.

"Don't worry about it," he said waving off her apology, "let's just get down to breakfast before it's over and time for classes to start. Ladies first," he smiled as her as he let her leave the common room before him.

They walked in silence to the great hall, and internal thoughts of the other, and the day ahead of them swarmed their minds.

'That was so weird, he was…nice.'

'Merlin, please don't let her cry again. I hate it when girls cry, it makes me so uncomfortable.'

'I hope classes go well this year, I am so nervous to take the N.E.W.T.S.'

'I hope classes go by fast today, it really sucks that we have to take so many advanced classes this year.'

'I hope it's nice today. Maybe a run and some soccer would clear my head.'

'I hope it's nice today. Maybe flying and playing some quidditch would clear my head. I'll have to see if Blaise is interested in a little practice.'

They had reached the great hall by now, and were walking their separate ways to their respective house tables. As Hermione made her way across the great hall, she noticed Harry, Ron, Parvati, Lavender, and Ginny, were enthralled with the conversation they were having with…Nick. The Nick she did not want to see, the Nick who seemed to be clad in the school uniform made of Gryffindor colors.

'Could my life get any worse?' she thought with a groan.


	5. The Longest Day

**Thanks to those of you who reviewed. I wanted to get this up, before I go out of town for a couple of days. I hope that you enjoy. Let me know what you think. **

**Chapter 5: The Longest Day **

She had managed to avoid coming into contact with Nick the whole day. She had no classes with him today, thankfully, and she had sat alone on the opposite end of the table in the great all from her friends, just to avoid him.

Now, she was sitting alone in the head's common room. She had just finished with classes, she had finished her homework, and she still had a few hours until the prefect meeting Dumbledore had called. It was still light outside, so she decided to go for a run. She quickly ran up the stairs, and into her closet. She put on a black sports bra, and tight, short, running shorts. She pulled her hair back into a high ponytail, tied her Adidas sneakers, grabbed her soccer ball, and went outside to the quidditch field. She stretched for a bit, before she took off to run laps around the field.

Draco, Blaise, Harry, and Ron were flying high in the air, playing a short game of quidditch, when Draco stopped in mid air, staring at a girl who seemed to be kicking a black and white ball, and chasing it around the field below. Blaise, Harry, and Ron had stopped next to him, following Draco's gaze, and also started watching the girl below.

"What is she doing?" Draco asked unable to tear his eyes away from the crazy girl on the ground. Blaise and Ron nodded their heads in agreement with Draco.

"She is kicking a soccer ball and running laps," Harry laughed at the other boys' confusion. "Soccer is a muggle sport," he added realizing that they would not understand was a soccer ball is.

"Oh," Ron said.

"I wonder who the girl is," Harry said racking his brain, to see if he could think of any girl who may play soccer here at Hogwarts.

"Who cares, let's finish our game before Ron, Blaise, and I have that prefects meeting tonight. I would like to take a shower before I have to sit in a room full of people." Draco said, and the boys flew away and continued on with their game.

An hour and a half later, Hermione collapsed onto the ground, breathing heavily. She was tired, hot, and sweaty. The cool grass felt good against the exposed skin of her back. She wished there was a soccer team here at Hogwarts to play on, but she knew it would never happen, plus there were not many girls who knew how to play soccer here, it being a muggle sport and all.

She lifted herself up off of the ground with a groan, grabbed her ball, and ran back up to the castle to take a shower. Hermione threw her soccer ball into her room, without watching where it went, and dragged herself over to the bathroom door. Before she could grab the handle, the door flew wide open and out came Malfoy, half naked, and only wearing a green town around his waist. His blond hair was wet, and hung in his eyes, and the water droplets glistened on his chest. He had a muscular body, and he was much tanner than he had been in the past.

"What are you staring at Granger," Malfoy brought her thoughts back to the real world, "Would you move?" at this he pushed past her and walked into his bedroom, and she walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower.

She took her hair down from her tight ponytail, and shook her head to let it flow down her back. She removed her socks and shoes, and her sports bra and her shorts, which were wet with sweat and sticking to her body as she pealed them off and climbed into the shower.

Walking into his bedroom, he dressed in a pair of slightly baggy black jeans, his white three layer studded belt, with black studs, and a tight black t-shirt. He sat on his desk chair, tying up his black converse, and then decided to head down to the common room and read for transfiguration before he had to leave for the prefect meeting.

He must have dozed off for a bit, because he awoke when he heard the loud clopping noise of Granger's flip flops, as she walked down the stairs. 'Man that girl makes a lot of noise.'

"Let's go Malfoy," she walked right past him, "or we'll be late to the meeting," she added as she walked out of the portrait hole.

He flew up out of his seat and ran to catch up with her, as she was getting farther out of his sight.

'Merlin I seem desperate,' he thought to himself as he slowed down his running a bit.

"Granger," he said causally strolling up to her, "We need to talk."

"Fine," she said but continued to focus on the walk ahead of her, "talk."

"Well you see," he said trying to think of how to put this. "Snape talked to me today, even my own head of house is against me it seems, and said that we need to get along. He said something about promoting house unity or some kind of crap like that. I kinda stopped listening to him after he said I had to be nice to you." She was now staring at him in disbelief, "Now look, I don't like you and I know you don't like me, but let's at least pretend so that we don't lose our positions."

"We'll lose our positions if we don't get along?"

"Yes, weren't you listening to me?" he said rolling his eyes, "can we just pretend to get along?"

"Sure," she said dully and turned back to look at the walk ahead of her, "I just can't lose my position as head girl."

"Don't be so dramatic Granger,"

That was the last they spoke of to each other until they got inside of the prefects' meeting room.

"Granger, move," Malfoy whispered in her ear, since she had stopped dead in her tracks as soon as she had entered the room "Everyone's waiting for us," he them murmured to himself, "What's with all the girls in this school and the new guy?" He must have traced her gaze to Nick, whom she happened to be staring blankly at.

She tried to run away, but Malfoy pushed her by the small of her back, not in a kind way mind you, into the room.

"Finally, you two have arrived," Dumbledore said to them, "please take your seats and we will begin."

Nick was now staring wide eyed as her, and she quickly looked at the table in front of her, she tried to focus her mind on what Dumbledore was saying, but she was failing miserably. She continued to sneak glances at Nick throughout the meeting, who continued to stare at her in disbelief.

"Miss Granger, Is everything alright?" Dumbledore asked her since he noticed she was not paying attention, and that was very unlike her.

"I'm fine Professor," she said dully, "I'm just a bit tired that's all."

"Alright," he gave her a weak smile, not sure that he had gotten the whole truth from her, "The meeting is dismissed. Remember, Mister Malfoy and Miss Granger will be in charge of the meetings from now on. Have a good dinner and a goodnight," the Headmaster dismissed the group. "Mister Malfoy and Miss Granger, if you would please join me up here before you leave."

Hermione's eyes got wide and she her brain started to go into panic mode. She was going to have to go up there and actually talk to Nick. 'Oh god, oh god,' her brain could not seem to function past that at the moment. She gathered up her things, and followed Malfoy up to the desk which Dumbledore was standing next to, talking to Nick.

"Ahh, Mister Malfoy and Miss Granger," Dumbledore began, "I would like to introduce you to Mister Nicholas Cook." Both Malfoy and she shook his hand, introducing themselves by their first names. She had retracted her hand after a quick single shake, and stuffed both of her hands as deep into the pockets of her blue jeans as possible. "Thank you two for showing him around the school after dinner. Now go on you three and have a good night." His eyes sparkled as if he knew something that they did not.

Malfoy drew all of Nick's attention away from her, as they talked all the way down to the great hall. She walked behind them a bit, and watched her feet as she walked, and her thoughts started to get to her.

'Why oh why does this have to happen to me? Why am I being forced to show my ex-boyfriend around the school? Why is my ex-boyfriend even at this school? WHY DOES EVERYTHING BAD ALWAYS HAPPEN TO ME?' her thoughts carried her away, and she barely noticed that they had reached the great hall.

Malfoy had already headed towards the Slytherin table, when Nick turned around to talk to Hermione, and brought her thoughts to an end.

"Would you like to sit with me?" he asked sweetly, with a hopeful smile on his face.

"I…I don't think…"

"Please 'Mione," he said his smile changing to a sad one, "I know that you are mad at me, and you have every right to be. I promise it won't be just us, I have been sitting with a few other kids all day. Harry, Ron, Par…"

"I know," he looked at her with a confused look, "I have been avoiding you all day, and you have been sitting with my best friends."

"Oh. Well, will you sit with us? I don't mean to steal your friends from you, I would feel bad if you didn't" he sounded sincere, "Please?"

"Fine," she let out a sigh and followed him over to where her friends were sitting.

"Hey Nick, 'Mione, I see you two have finally met," Harry said excitedly. "'Mione, where have you been all day? I haven't seen you anywhere."

"I've uh…been around," she said not looking at any of her friends. She sat in her seat, next to Nick, and across from Harry, staring at her plate, and fiddling with her fork. She paid no attention to the conversation around her, until she felt a tap on her shoulder and looked into the face of Nick.

"Um, Draco is ready to go, are you ready?"

"Sorry I guess I wasn't paying attention," she said slinging her bag over her shoulder, "let's go."

They walked out of the great hall in silence, and met up with Malfoy, who directed the school tour. He was only focusing on things that he felt were important, but Hermione wasn't interested in putting in her two cents.

"And here is the library," Malfoy said trying to sound like a tour guide, "If you ever need to find Granger, here is the place to look." He laughed to himself, but was cut off by Nick's remark.

"'Mione, in a library," he said in disbelief, "not out on the soccer field, not drinking from the nearest keg, you would first think to look for 'Mione in the library?"

"Granger, anywhere but a library? Now that's the funniest thing I have ever heard," Malfoy was doubled over in laughter. "Especially drinking, like you would ever catch her drinking or doing anything else besides reading from a damn book or doing homework that isn't even due for the next month."

"Wow," Nick said stopping his laughter, "you really must not be the same girl I know when you're here at school, no wonder you party so hard when you come home," he said turning to look at her, his face still red from laughing.

"SHUT UP! I AM STANDING RIGHT HERE AND I DON'T NEED YOU TWO TALKING ABOUT ME AND MAKING FUN OF ME AS IF I WERE NOT!" she spun on her heal and ran in the direction of the head's common room, never looking back, and letting her tears spill down her cheeks.

"Tell Hermione," Nick looked at the floor sadly, "Tell her I'm sorry," with that he walked away and headed towards Gryffindor tower.

He could not stop his laughter. Hermione Granger, Gryffindor Bookworm Princess, drinking and doing something other than studying. Hermione's outburst put a damper on the tour; they were basically finished any way. He was now stumbling back to his common room.

She had collapsed onto the nearest armchair, sobbing loudly, as she entered the common room. She did not know how long she had been sitting there, but she heard Malfoy stumble in and collapse onto the couch, still laughing his head off.

"If you hiccup are going hiccup to make fun of me hiccup than you can just go hiccup away." Hermione sobbed, but never looked up at him.

"Sorry, sorry," he said trying to hold in his laughter. "It was just too funny. He was talking about you like he knew you or something, though he was way off in your personality."

"SHUT UP!"

"I mean, seriously," he continued his rant, "you, drinking?"

"You know what Malfoy," her voice was dangerously low, and she had magically stopped her hiccups from interfering in her speech. "You know nothing about me. You know nothing about my life. Why don't you just leave me alone?"

He thought for a few minutes, before he stood up from the couch. Before he walked away, he spoke, "Um, Nick wanted me to tell you that he's sorry, I don't know what for, but he said it anyways," she heard his voice turn serious, but as she turned to look at him, all she saw was the back of him as he walked up the stairs and disappeared into his bedroom.

"God this has been the longest day of my life," she put her head back down on the arm of the chair, and quietly cried herself to sleep. Her last thought, before she fell asleep, was that she seemed to be doing that a lot lately and she really needed to stop.


	6. The Runin

**Thanks to those of you who reviewed, and to Burning Lily my wonderful Beta. I hope that you all enjoy this chapter. I'll try to get the next one out fairly soon. Let me know what you think. **

**Chapter 6: The Run-in **

As she awoke the next morning, still curled up on the black, leather, armchair, she stood and stretched, almost falling over from the cramps in her legs. She stumbled up the stairs and into the bathroom to shower and get ready for classes.

Once she was ready, and dressed in her school uniform, she walked down the stairs, through the empty common room, picking up her bag from next to her chair, through the portrait hole, and continued her way down to the great hall. It was still early, so there were not many people there yet. Malfoy, Blaise, Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy, whom was hanging on Malfoy's every action, were seated at the Slytherin table. A few younger Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs, whom she did not know their names, were eating, and she was currently the only Gryffindor in the great hall this morning.

She sat near one of the ends of the long table, and slowly picked at the food on her plate. She had not eaten since lunch yesterday, but for some reason she was not very hungry. Someone came and sat across from her, and began to eat without saying a word. She did not know why, but she could feel their stare and she automatically knew who it was.

"Nick, why are you doing this to me?" she looked up into his eyes. "Why do you have to make this so hard?"

"I'm sorry," he looked down at his plate, "do you want me to leave you alone?"

"I WANT SOME ANSWERS NICK!" she screamed, standing up and slamming her fist on the table, but then quieted her voice and sat back down when she realized that she was drawing attention to herself. "You break up with me three days ago because you met someone else. Now, I find out that you are a wizard, and that you are here, at my school! On top of all that, you are acting as if nothing has changed between us. You hurt me Nick; you shattered my heart in to a billion pieces. I told you that I loved you; do you know how hard that was for me? You were the first person I ever said that too. I am sorry that I made you wait so long, but I was going to give myself to you three days ago. I love you, and you being here, acting like this, all nice and crap, makes it that much harder for me to get over you." Tears were threatening to spill over now, and everyone in the great hall still had their eyes glued to the couple at the Gryffindor table. They could not really hear what was going on, but they hoped for a slip of the volume, as had happened before.

"I'm sorry. I am so sorry for everything I have done to you," he started, but was interrupted by their friends joining them at the table.

"Morning you guys," Harry said cheerfully.

"Morning," both Nick and Hermione said quickly and went back to their conversation.

"I would love to finish this, but I think that we need to do this alone," he whispered and she regretfully agreed. "Plus, I need to talk to Dumbledore before classes. Can we talk later, this is really important?"

"Sure, I guess we can go to my common room after dinner."

"Ok, thanks 'Mione," he got up and left the great hall, but turned around to mouth, "I'm sorry," to her and give her a sad smile.

'I guess I'm going to have to go through another afternoon of the anguish that that boy puts me through,' she thought before turning back to her plate and chatting with her friends, whom were talking about something uninteresting to her.

The Gryffindors had double potions today, with the Slytherins. Professor Snape had paired her with Malfoy, and things seemed to go okay. Contrary to her previous beliefs, Malfoy actually cared about school, and took it very seriously. They did not talk much, besides about the potion they were making, but it was nice. She was not interested in having a friendly conversation at the moment, as her thoughts were elsewhere.

The day went by quickly, and she kept finding her thoughts drifting to Nick, and she wished that they would not. She was feeling an array of emotions about seeing him tonight. She was anxious, scarred, excited, nervous, upset, and even a bit happy.

After classes, she still had about an hour until dinner started. She decided to go for a quick run, before she had to go, and she would do her homework after she talked with Nick, not that there was much left to do anyways. It was only reading, and of course she had already read the whole book.

He sat on the couch with his head leaning back against the back of the couch. He had on a green shirt, with a black button up shirt laying open over it, and a pair of baggy black jeans. He was stretched out with his feet up on the table and his arms along the back of the couch. He was staring at the ceiling.

"I am SO bored," he said to himself.

"Then find something to do Malfoy," he turned towards her, not expecting anyone to respond to his cries of boredom.

She did not say anything else, but he watched her run up stairs wearing a very small and tight shirt, it was almost like a mini tank top that ended right below her boobs with some elastic there, and a pair of shorts that were very small and very tight.

'Merlin she is in good shape,' he thought to himself, 'I wonder what she…NO, NO, NO, STOP THINKING ABOUT HER THAT WAY NOW! SHE IS THE KNOW-IT-ALL GRANGER! MUD…' he stopped his thoughts before he could finish that word. He told himself that he would not call her that word; it would make being "nice" to her a bit easier.

He started reading a book that he found lying on the table. "So this is where I left my transfiguration book yesterday." He began to read until Granger came down a while later.

"Glad to see you found something to occupy your time with," he looked up at Hermione who was currently putting silver hoop earrings through her ears.

"Doesn't that hurt?" his face was he looked confused and he looked as if he were in pain.

"What?" she said looking at him and moving to the other ear.

"That," he pointed at her, "sticking that thing through your ear, doesn't it hurt?" she was laughing at him.

"No, of course not," she said containing her laughter to just a giggle. "It hurt when they first pierced my ears, but not there is a permanent hold there so I can put earrings in." She used her fingers to move her earrings around to describe what she was talking about.

"Oh," his face was still contorted as if he were in pain, "ok then, whatever you say." He was now noticing her choice of outfits, and smirked. Dark blue jeans that sat very low on her hips, a black spaghetti strap tank top with a matching green one on top, that stopped right about her bellybutton, which was donned with a green and silver sparkly belly button ring, "Very slytherin of you Granger."

"What? She asked in disbelief, "Don't you dare…"

"I meant the outfit," he interrupted her and smirked a bit wider, "Green, black, and silver?"

"Oh," she just wanted to wipe that smirk off his face, "I didn't even notice." 'Not like it mattered what she was wearing, as long as it wasn't pink since that was Nick's favorite color on her. "Well, I'm off to dinner, see you later," and he watched her walk out of the portrait hole.

He picked himself up off of the chair, threw his book on the table, and followed Granger down to dinner, but kept his distance since he did not actually want to be seen with her.

The great hall was packed, but Blaise always saved him a seat so there was no need to worry. He sat down, piled food onto his plate, and began to eat, while he talked to Blaise. They were also listening to Pansy and Millicent fawn over Nick, he of course was listening to them absentmindedly.

"What is so special about this kid?" Draco asked Blaise, but before he could answer, Pansy and Millicent started to express their feelings towards the new boy to them.

"He is SOOOOO cute!" Pansy started.

"Oh I know, that spikey hair, tall stature, muscular body, and he is so tan!" Millicent chimed in.

"Yeah, he is great," the girls sighed together, making the boys roll their eyes and start talking about quidditch.

They walked back to the common room in silence, neither her nor Nick looked at each other, they both seemed to be watching their feet, while she fiddled with her hands, and Nick stuffed his deep into the pockets of his khaki, cargo shorts. They reached the portrait hole, she murmured the password, and Nick ushered her inside to sit on the chairs. They sat in silence for a few minutes.

"So," they said at the same time, "Go ahead." She put her hand up to quiet him.

"Please go first," she started, "I already told you how I feel, so please insist."

"Well," he stalled, "Where do I start?"

"How about from the beginning?" she was becoming agitated.

"Right, well," he was hoping for a miracle. He needed to tell her this, but he was nervous. He did not know if she could ever forgive him, or if she would ever understand. Why did he suggest doing this here? It they had done this in the great hall, or even in the hallway, someone would be able to stop her from killing him.

"HURRY UP," she was pissed, he could hear it in her voice, "I DON'T KNOW WHY I LET YOU TALK ME INTO DOING THIS LATER, WE SHOULD HAVE HAD THIS OUT IN THE GREAT HALL THIS MORNING! Then I wouldn't have to sit here and wait for your sorry ass! I would kill you, but you know that my threats would be empty and that I could never go through with it. That is what is so sad about this situation, you know me so well, and I obviously know you." She was breathing heavily from her yelling. "I could hex you though," she pulled her wand from behind her back, "let's try that, you tell me what is going on, or I'll hex you!" She was now pointing her wand at the middle of Nick's forehead, and he squirmed and struggled to get the words out.

"Ok, well," he stuttered, "Hermione, please put that away, I know that you are serious, but I swear I'll tell you. I just can't do it while you have that pointed at my face."

"Well, you should have thought about that before hand," she was glaring at him menacingly, "let's hear it Nick, let's hear your great story about why you broke my heart. Who is this fantastic girl who stole your heart away from me? Huh? Let's hear it?"

Just then, Nick turned his head when he heard a noise, and looked to see Draco whom had fell over into the wall in shock of what was before him, and he was now moving his eyes between Hermione and Nick.

"I…I…I gotta go," Nick quickly dodged the spell Hermione had thrown at him, and slipped out of the common room.

"I can't believe that asshole," he watched Granger pace in front of the chair she had been sitting in a few moments ago. "What is wrong with him?"

'Oh Merlin,' she had turned on him, and now had her wand pointed at his throat. His eyes grew wide as she spoke with malice.

"You!" her eyes narrowed, "He wouldn't have left it you hadn't of shown up. He wouldn't have left, and I would have gotten answers!"

"Now, now Granger," he was terrified, knowing what she could do with that wand, so he tried to rationalize with her, and actually hoped for a miracle. "I was just walking into the room, this is my common room too. I don't know what I walked in on, but I'm sorry. Oh Merlin am I sorry." She seemed to think about this for a moment, and then retracted her wand and dropped it onto the table.

Granger then collapsed onto the chair behind her and once again she started to cry, and she rambled on and on about something.

"What is wrong with me? Am I really that undesirable? Why doesn't he love me?" she was sobbing now, and he just started at her, "Why can't I just get over him? Why is he here now, of all times? Couldn't he have come when we were happy? Then at least I wouldn't have to work through the feelings of him being a wizard, and him breaking up with me."

"Does she even know that I am here?" Draco thought out loud to himself, no response from her assured him that she didn't. He decided to change that and snap her out of her trance. He bent over and picked his transfiguration book up from off the table, 'I knew this would come in handy here,' he thought to himself as he lifted the book over his head.

'BAM!' he threw the book onto the table, making Granger jump at least a foot in the air, and he had succeeded in snapping her out of her trance.

"Good god Malfoy," she put her hand over her heart and turned to glare at him, "What in the hell did you do that for?

"You were stuck in some sort of weird trance, and your murmuring was starting to bother me," he acted as if it were no big deal. "So what was Nick doing here anyways? Are you trying to hook up with him of something?"

She had burst out into a fresh batch of tears, and for some reason, she started spilling everything that had happened between her and Nick to Malfoy, of ALL people.

"No, I am not trying to hook up with him. We used to date back in the muggle world, we dated for two years, but he broke up with me three days ago. I didn't know he was a wizard until the night at the great feast when he showed up here at Hogwarts," she went on and on and he tried not to pay attention, but she was so alluring, "I loved him, and I thought he loved me. I was going to have sex with him. Why was I so stupid?"

He tried to keep the conversation going, because for some reason, he wanted to know more, but she just got up and sober her way up the stairs and into her room. She quickly dressed in a pair of red plaid pajama pants and a black wife-beater, climbed under her royal blue comforter, for the first time this year, snuggled into the warmth of her bed, and sobbed herself to sleep.


	7. Do Things Change?

**Hey ya'll. Thanks to those of you who reviewed, you are all great! And a HUGE thank you to Burning Lily, my wonderful Beta, she is great! Thanks for reading my story everybody! I hope that you enjoy this chapter; I had a lot of fun writing it. I have a lot written so I will try to update REALLY soon! Enjoy and let me know what you think!**

**Chapter 7: Do things change?**

Granger was enthralled with Professor Binns' History of Magic lesson. Draco had no clue what the lesson was about, because he was staring at Granger and he thoughts seemed to be consumed with her as well. She was sitting next to Potter and Parvati, two rows down and across the isle from Draco. He took in every aspect of her. Her black school robes hung open to revile her school uniform.

Her brown curly hair, had blond, black, and red highlights in it, and it flowed down to the middle of her back in large bouncy curls. 'That must be new, I don't remember her hair like that yesterday' He thought mentally. She wore a tight, white button down blouse, with her Gryffindor tie, tied neatly around her neck. She must have shortened her skit a bit this year, since now it lay about two or three inches above her knee. She had her legs crossed; one of the other at the knee, and her tan legs seemed to go on forever. Her small feet were covered with Black platform sandals that showed her bright red painted toe nails. 'I wonder how those got to be red?' he thought. He had no romantic interest in her, but he felt drawn to her in a way that he knew he should not. He had been thinking about her and about what happened last night, since it happened. He even dreamt about her. 'Merlin I'm losing it!'

"Draco," he felt someone nudge him, but did not respond. "Draco!"

"Huh?" he looked up to see a boy with black curly hair and a Slytherin uniform on, trying to pull him out of his chair. "What do you want Blaise?"

"It's lunchtime, I'm starving," Blaise whines, "let's go!"

"Alright, alright. Stop whining, it doesn't suit you," he stood up and slung his bag over his shoulder. "Let's go."

They left the room behind Granger. Draco watched her walk down the hallway alone, towards the great hall. Her hips swayed seductively as she walked. She had her head held high, and she had her shoulders squared. She looked confident, but he was sure if he were to look into her eyes, he would see a mixture of sadness and loneliness. Those seemed to be the most popular emotions he noticed flash across her face. He thought that she masked them well with this air of confidence she placed around herself. He placed the same air around himself; this is how he could easily see through her barriers.

He noticed that right before they reached the great hall, Granger made a left and walked through the front castle doors and made her way outside.

"Hey," he turned to Blaise, "I'm not that hungry. I think I'm gonna go outside and take a walk. I'll see you in class."

"K, see ya later," Blaise walked into the great hall, and Draco turned left and followed Granger outside.

The sunshine was warm upon his face, as he ventured out into the grassy fields and walked down towards the lake where he spotted Granger. She was just setting down her bag next to the big tree.

She set down her bag, and then sat down on the soft grassy ground beneath the big tree by the lake. She leaned her back against the rough bark covering the tree's trunk. She leaned forward and then back again a few times to get more comfortable. She reached inside of her black school bag, and pulled out her large, heavy, transfiguration book. She began reading, when someone sat down next to her.

"What are you doing down her Granger?" she looked towards him and looked into his piercing gray eyes.

"I could ask you the same question Malfoy," she looked back at her book, and continued reading.

They sat in silence for a few seconds, but he could not keep himself from asking the question that was plaguing his mind.

"Are you okay?" he sounded sincere, so she looked at him. He was sitting with his knees up and his arms wrapped around his legs, with his hands clasped together in front of him. He was staring at the ground between his legs, and his blond hair hung in front of his eyes. His robe was lying next to him, neatly folded up, leaving him in his black converse, black slacks, a long sleeve, white, button down shirt with the top three buttons undone, and his Slytherin tie loosely hanging around his neck.

"He looks so…un-Malfoy like," she thought to herself. 'Who do I have this urge to reach over and brush his hair out of his eyes? What is happening to me? I hate this kid,' "Why do you care?" she snapped at him.

"I don't care, Granger," hurt flashed through his eyes when he snapped his head up to look at her. "I don't even know why I came down here," he quickly pushed himself off the ground.

"Wait," she grabbed his wrist gently, and he turned to look into her pleading eyes. "I'm…I'm sorry. Nick is just a touchy subject," she let go of his wrist as he sat back down next to her. "Anyways, to answer your question, I'm okay, at least I will be. I didn't mean to spill my guts to you last night. I'm sorry. I'm so embarrassed." She looked at the ground and played with a blade of green grass.

"What happened anyways?" he was also watching her nimble fingers play with them grass. She was tearing it into tiny shreds. "I don't mean to pry, but I have been wondering since you ran off to bed last night."

"Really?" she looked up at him and saw that he was watching her fiddle. "Well, Nick was supposed to explain why he broke up with me, but he was wasting time and then he left as soon as he had seen that you walked into the room. That is all."

"Oh, have you talked to him since then?"

"No, I haven't seen him all day," she looked at her watch. "Crap! If we don't leave now, we will be late for Transfiguration." They stood up, gathered their things, and hurried up to the castle and to the transfiguration classroom.

"Hi, Draco," Claire, a seventh year Slytherin purred in his ear, and clung to his left arm. She stood at about 5'7", and comfortably rested her chin on his shoulder. She had bright green eyes, hooded beneath long black eyelashes. Her shirt was unbuttoned at the top, showing off quite a bit of cleavage, since she carried quite a bit of weight on her chest. It was a miracle she did not break in half. Her waist was tiny and he could not figure out how she carried her double D breasts. Her skirt rested about and inch or two below her arse. Her robe was also fitted tightly to her body. As they walked, her shoulder length, straight black hair, swished back and forth, tickling his neck. "Do you want to go back to your room and have some fun after class?" she smiled and winked at him suggestively.

He watched Granger pick up her pace and walk away from them. He turned to look at Claire with disgust, and he shook her off his arm.

"No! Did you have to come running back to me because no one wants your skanky arse?" she was staring at them in disbelief "Maybe if you hadn't cheated on my last year, more than once may I remind you, this conversation would be going differently. I told you we were finished when you went and slept with Nott. Why don't you go and be a good little slut, hunt down some fool, and leave me be?" he walked into the transfiguration classroom where the chatter of students filled his ears.

Claire pushed her way past him and went to sit next to her best friend Jamie, a short, blond haired, blue eyed, seventh year Slytherin.

'Speak of the devil,' he thought as he noticed the only available seat was next to his ex-friend Theodore Nott.


	8. You'll Never Change

**Sorry this took me so long to get out. I was out of town for a bit. Anyways, thanks so much for those who reviewed and to my wonderful Beta. (I put this out anyways but fixed that scene so you'll have to tell me what you think.) I hope that you guys like this one. Thanks for your great reviews, it is wonderful encouragement! Adios! **

**Chapter 8: You'll Never Change.**

Draco walked down the isle, and noticed Granger turn to look at him as he took the seat across the isle from her, next to Nott. She quickly turned back to Blaise, whom she was sitting next to, and resumed her conversation with him when she saw that he noticed her looking at him.

'She is cute when she blushes,' he quickly scolded himself for his thoughts. 'Granger is not cute! Not in any way, shape, or form. She is nothing, she is a mudblood, she means nothing,' his head would continue to be in conflict with any reactions his body may have to her.

He continued to glance at her every few seconds, but she would not look at him. She was in deep conversation with Blaise. He tried to strain his ears to hear what they were talking about, but they kept their voices low. McGonagall had not shown up yet. The class was becoming restless, and the noise level was raising, it was giving him a headache. He rubbed his temples in a smooth round motion when he headache became worse.

"Couldn't get the beautiful pureblood or any pureblood for that matter, to stick around so you had to move onto the filthy mudblood, eh Malfoy?" Not sniggered. "Though I do have to say, the mudblood ain't that ugly anymore. At least she's got that going for her."

As soon as the last word had left his mouth, Draco had knocked him, along with both Nott's and his own chair, to the ground and had pinned him there. He searched for his wand, but it was no where to be found.

"No wand eh Malfoy?" Nott's eyes gleamed mischievously and pointed to Draco's wand which he had stolen and thrown across the room.

"I don't need my wand to deal with you," he lifted his fist above his head continuously, and punched Nott where ever his fist would land. "I'll kill you with my bare hands you stupid son of a bitch!"

They rolled around on the ground, beating each other, and it took Blaise, Harry, and Ron to pry Draco away from the fight. Draco got off easy with a black eye and a fat lip with a small cut from Nott's ring. He had a small bit of blood dripping down his chin. Nott on the other hand, was left in a puddle on the floor. Draco had given him a broken nose, two black eyes, and left him doubled over in pain from a hard punch in the stomach.

"LET ME GO!" he screamed as the three boys drug him towards the back of the classroom and finally let him go. "You better watch yourself Nott," he said taking a glance at Nott and Claire, whom had ran to Nott's side, and stormed out of the classroom, with his robes billowing behind him.

"What happened?" Professor McGonagall hurried over to where Nott was lying on the floor. "Miss Granger, what happened here?"

"Malfoy and him got into a fight. I do not know what came over him, but he was quite angry. He stormed off just before you walked into the room," Hermione tried to explain.

"Well Miss Granger, since he is head boy and you are head girl, I expect you to please go and find out the details of this situation," she looked at her, "Please report to me this evening. You are dismissed."

"I am going to kill him," she fumed, "What the hell came over him? Why must I leave class to figure out what the hell his problem is? He better have a damn good reason for beating Nott to a bloody pulp. DAMNIT MALFOY!"

As soon as he entered the common room, he whipped out his wand and instantly conjured a punching bag. He ripped off his robe, tie, shirt, and sweater, and hurled them onto the couch. He was left standing in a pair of black slacks, a black three layer studded belt, and black converse tennis shoes, and he proceeded to walk up to the punching bag and take his frustrations out on it.

This was his way of ridding himself of his anger. He hated fighting. He did not want to be like his father. He hated his father and everything he stood for. Draco hated the things his father did and the things he wanted him to do. He hated that he used to be like his father, that he used to want to be like his father. It had been a rough couple of years for him. He watched the death of his father in the war, his mother sat at home mourning the loss of her husband, leaving her physically and emotionally unavailable. She was not as big of a supporter of the dark arts, but she still loved Lucius very much. Then, last year Claire, his girlfriend of a year and two months, cheated on him with one of his friends. He hated fighting, but ever since Nott slept with Clair behind his back, he pushed Draco's buttons in just the right way and Draco could not help but want to beat the crap out of him.

"WHAT IN THE BLOODY HELL WAS THAT MALFOY?" a very angry Granger yelled at him, and advanced upon him quickly. "ARE YOU MAD? You could have lost your position as head boy for that!"

"Why didn't I?" he asked thoughtfully, 'is class already over? I didn't think I had been at this that long,' he thought to himself.

"Because I saved your sorry arse!" she was now a mere few inches away from him, poking him in the chest with her finger, and she was glaring directly up at him, since he towered over her small frame. "After you left, McGonagall came in a wanted to know what happened to Nott! After I explained the small bit of information I knew from watching your little brawl, she sent me to find out what the hell was going through your mind! Please tell me that your brain relapsed and you have no clue what came over you, or you had some sort of a major muscle spasm. I have to report back to McGonagall tonight, so let's hear it."

"He deserved it."

"That is ALL you have to say?" she was screaming. "You beat the crap out of some guy, and all you can say is that he deserved it? Why the hell did he deserve you beating him up Malfoy?"

"HE STOLE MY GIRLFRIEND!"

"…" that statement had not completely registered in her brain, since she was still angry at him for what he did in the classroom.

"You and I are in the same boat Granger!" he yelled forcefully. "Claire, my ex-girlfriend, the bitch who came up to my in the hallway before class started, slept with Nott last year behind my back. I thought I was over it, but I guess I'm not." He hung his head low and willed himself not to show her any emotion. "He said something to me in class, bringing it up, and I snapped. Is that what you wanted to know? "

"I'm sorry. I had no idea," she gently placed her hand on his sweaty bicep.

"Of course you had no idea. I won't let anyone find out. How great would that go over, The great Draco Malfoy gets cheated on, yeah right, like I would want that getting around." She was looking directly into his story gray eyes, which were filled with sadness, but was quickly replaced with anger.

"You can talk about it if you want to," he was staring at her hand on his arm, which he had just seemed to of noticed.

"I don't want to talk about it," he sounded angry. "I'm not one of your stupid little girlfriends like Potter and Weasley."

"Why must you be like you are?" she tried to catch his eye, but he would not give her the satisfaction. "Why must you hold everything inside and put up this wall that no one can get past? Why must you be such an ass, ALL of the time?" she removed her hand

"That's just who I am Granger," he finally met her eyes, which held a look of confusion. "What you see is that you get," with that, he turned around and went to throw a punch at the punching bag that was still hanging from an invisible string behind him.

Right before he was about to throw a punch, he felt a gentle hand on his arm, "I don't believe you." He turned around to look at her. She was beautiful. She had pulled her hair back into a messy bun since he had seen her in class, he lips were slightly parted from having just spoken, and the only thing he could think of, was that she was beautiful. It didn't matter anymore. He could not longer fight the urge.

They stood there for a few seconds, staring at each other, before he could no longer fight the urge. He leaned down, closed his eyes, and kissed her full on the lips. His tongue was just about to ask permission for entrance, but reason flooded his brain and he quickly pulled away from the kiss.

Just as she opened her eyes, she felt his body pull away from her hand, and she watched him walk briskly upstairs and into his room, slamming the door behind him.

'What…was…that?' she was surprised to say the least. She closed her eyes and fell onto the nearest chair. She gently placed two fingers to her tingling lips, as she tried to push out the thoughts of how excited that kiss made her feel. A swarm of butterflies were hurling themselves around the inside of her stomach, and she felt a bit light headed. She had confusion written all over her face, but a trace of a small smile could be found upon her lips as the short, sweet kiss replayed in her head, over and over again.

After sitting around for about a half an hour, lost in her thoughts, her stomach started to growl.

'I guess I should head down to dinner,' she stood up from her chair and walked out of the common room towards the great hall. 'CRAP! I forgot to talk to Professor McGonagall.' She made a quick left and headed to her Professor's office. '_Knock, knock, knock,'_ she rapped on the door.

"Come in," came the voice of an older woman from the other side of the door. "Miss Granger, what can I do for you?" she looked over the tops of her glasses at Hermione, while Hermione placed herself in a chair on the other side of the neatly arranged desk from her head of house.

"Professor," she began. "You asked me to come and speak to you about what happened earlier in class?"

"Yes Miss Granger."

"Well, I spoke with Malfoy," she looked down at her hands. "There is no excuse for what he did, but Nott provoked him. He was taunting him about a touchy subject and that caused Malfoy to snap. He seemed sincere and I do not think he should lose his position."

"She is right professor," she snapped her head towards the voice. "I am truly sorry for what I did. I know that there is no excuse, but I would greatly appreciate another chance," Malfoy walked over and sat in the chair next to her.

"Mr. Malfoy," Professor McGonagall began, "You will not lose your position as head boy, but you did get into a fight with another student. You should know better. I will have to give you a detention. Be here tomorrow night and I will have your assignment. You two may go, have a nice evening and I will see you tomorrow night after dinner Mr. Malfoy."

"Yes Professor," Malfoy replied.

"Goodnight Professor," both students said at the same time and walked out of her office.

They silently walked down the hallway to their common room, completely forgetting about dinner. Malfoy mumbled the password and threw himself down onto the couch, and Hermione walked over to the freezer.

"Malfoy," she handed him an ice pack.

"What?" he snapped. "Damnit Granger, why did you give me this? It's cold!"

"It's ice for you eye and your lip," she said sitting next to him on the couch nervously. "You should have been icing it earlier today, or it's going to take longer to get the swelling to go down."

"Whatever Granger," he said placing the ice pack on his lip, and wincing at the cold. "What are you still doing here? Shouldn't you be off moping and crying about Nick? He had the right idea dumping you; anyone else would be a better choice than you, the Mudblood Gryffindor Bookworm." He would not look at her, but she watched him with her jaw dropped open and her wide eyes filling quickly with tears. She could not blink them back, she did not even try. His words cut straight through her heart, and her tears ran down her cheeks like waterfalls.

"I hate you," she whispered and slapped him hard across the face. "I thought we were getting along better. YOU KISSED ME EVEN! What happened to you in the last hour? What made you go back to your old ways and become so mean?"

He held his free hand to the stinging spot on his face from where her hand had harshly connected with his cheek. He heard her run up stairs and right before he heard her ferociously slam her bedroom door, he heard her say,

"Why did I ever believe you could change? You'll never change; you'll always be an asshole. You're just like your father."


	9. What is Happening To Me?

**Hey there party people! Well, I just have one thing to say. I read Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince and my story probably will not follow how the book went. Not that it ever really followed how the books were going anyways, which is why I was enjoying writing it. But I just wanted to let you know and I hope that you all will keep reading. I am sure that you are tired of hearing me talk, so here I go with the story. Enjoy!**

**Chapter 9: What is happening to me?**

"You're just like your father," those words continued to repeat in his head every time he saw her. They made him angry. They made him angry at her for saying them, for thinking them, and angry at himself for the fact that he made them true last night. She had every right to say it; he deserved it for what he had said to her last night. His sleep was filled with fitful nightmares, not about her though, because he still did not think of her in that way, but about his father and the torturous things he did with his life, and the worst one of all, was him doing the same torturous things.

He visibly shuttered at the memory, and pushed it to the back of his brain as he watched her shuffle into the great hall early Saturday morning. Her body language screamed, 'Leave me alone!' Her head hung low, her shoulders were hunched forward, her arms hung limply at her sides, and she never picked her feet up off of the floor, she just shuffled along until she plopped herself down at the end of the Gryffindor table, closest to the exit. She sat by herself, not one was really in the great hall besides a few younger years at the other tables, but he was sure she would have chosen to sit by herself anyways. She did not eat anything; she just pushed her food around her plate with her fork. Her brown hair was loosely pulled back into a messy bun, she was pale, and she had dark circles under her red puffy eyes. She almost looked like a zombie. She wore a fitted black t-shirt that had to word 'loser' written in white block letters across her chest, and she had on a pair of slightly baggy black sweatpants. On her feet, she wore a simple pair of black flip flops. His heart dropped as he continued to watch her.

'Why is this happening to me? It used to make me feel good to hurt Granger,' he thought to himself, but never tore his eyes away from her.

He came to Hogwarts this year on a mission. He was on a mission to prove to everyone that he was not his father, that he was not anything like that cold heartless jerk that raised him. He wanted to show people that he really was a good person, and that the only reason he joined the light side in the war was not just to keep himself from being killed or imprisoned, but to prove that this is the side he really belonged on, that this was who he wanted to be. Though he came on a mission, it was the end of his first week and he had already failed miserably.

'I guess old habits die a lot harder than I thought,' He had helped to fill Granger with the hurt and sadness she had been carrying around with her since 'the incident' on Wednesday night. She was already upset about this Nick character breaking up with her, and then he had to go along and kiss her. 'What the bloody hell was I thinking kissing her? She wasn't ready, hell, I wasn't even ready for that,' he thought angrily to himself.

"I'm such an ass," Draco grumbled, "she was right."

"Who was right?" he tuned his head to the left to look at the curious face of Blaise, whom he guessed had just sat down next to him.

"Granger,"

"Have you seen her lately? She is a total mess. Looks like she hasn't slept in days," Blaise followed his gaze and noticed that it rested upon her. "You live with her man, what happened to her the last few days? No one's seen her outside of classes since she left transfiguration on Wednesday to go find you, and even then she isn't really there. It's like there is a Hermione shell walking around."

"It's my fault," Blaise was staring at him. "I…I said some stuff to her when she came to find me that I shouldn't have."

"What could you have said to make her be like that?" he nodded in Hermione's direction. "When you said something to her on the train, she totally blew it off and shoved it back in your face."

"Well, it wasn't only me. She was already depressed and I made it worse."

"Stop skirting the question! What did you say?"

"That Nick had the right idea dumping her, and that anyone else would be better than the mudblood Gryffindor bookworm." Blaise was starting at him open mouthed. " I didn't mean to hurt her, I was angry with myself and those things just came out."

"Nick, as in the new kid and Hermione dated? When?"

"Shit!" he slapped his forehead with the palm of his hand. "I wasn't supposed to say anything. Just pretend you didn't hear that!"

"Woah! You can't just spill that and then not explain."

"You can't tell anyone Blaise," he sighed. "Especially not Ginny, Potter , and Weasley, and all of them. They CAN'T know, GOT IT?"

"Okay, I got it," he nodded his head for Draco to continue. "When did you become protector of Granger's secrets anyways?"

"I am NOT protector of Granger's secrets, she just started telling me without, well…really knowing that she was telling ME," he sounded exasperated. "Anyways, Granger and Nick used to date in the Muggle World. They dated for like two years, and she didn't know he was a wizard until he showed up here. Well, he dumped her the night before school started, because he met someone else. That is all I know."

"WHAT?" Blaise had shock written all over his face and if this was not such a serious issue, Draco would have laughed at the look on his best friend's face.

"Shhh…" he hit Blaise in the arm.

"Ouch," Blaise rubbed his arm.

"Then shut up," he whispered, "you're drawing attention."

"Wait," he was still rubbing his arm. "Why do you know all of this and Harry, Ron, and Ginny don't? You two hate each other. Any why did you say those things to her? What were you so mad about?"

"Well, aren't you full of questions today?" he continued eating his now lukewarm breakfast. "She doesn't want anyone to know about it, and don't you listen? I told you that she just sort of told me on accident after Nick left our room a couple of days ago! And I said all of that to her because I was mad about something that happened between us, and I took it out on her when she tried to help me with my eye after we met with McGonagall about the fight in class yesterday."

"Merlin, you went crazy yesterday. And it sounds to me like your first comment was right, you are an ass." Blaise looked back down at his half full plate. "What was the fight about anyways? Not Claire again was it?"

"Nott's an ass. He told me I couldn't get a pureblood, so I had to go for a mudblood. Just because I glanced in her direction, I wasn't even looking at her," he lied to Blaise.

"Merlin Draco, You like her don't you?" Blaise had a smug smile on his face.

"WHAT?" he screamed in disbelief. "NO WAY! I DON'T LIKE HER!" he screamed and then stormed out of the great hall.

"He likes her," Blaise chuckled to himself quietly and watched a flustered Draco burst out of the great hall.

"Oofff…" she fell to the ground hard, as someone forcefully ran into her as she was leaving the great hall. "How rude," she said dully when they did not even stop to see if she was okay. "This is going to be a fantastic weekend, I can already feel it. I haven't slept in three days. My friends didn't notice anything was wrong until about five minutes ago, and now they are asking me a million questions which drives me crazy. Then I get run over by someone? I don't even want to know how the rest of the weekend is going to go, hell, I don't even want to know how the rest of today is going to go," she had picked herself up off of the ground by now and was a few footsteps away from the portrait hole. "United," she mumbled and stepped through the hold and plopped herself down onto one of the large, soft, black, leather chairs and closed her eyes.

She was so absorbed in her thoughts, she never heard anyone enter the room, nor did she hear them sit in the chair across the table from her. She did not have to see him to know that he was there. She could feel his stare, making her put up her defenses.

"Why are you staring at me?" she asked bitterly, keeping her eyes closed tightly. "Stop it, it gives me the creeps."

"Look Granger," Malfoy started but she interrupted him.

"Don't talk to me. I don't want to hear, nor do I care to hear what you have to say, "She still did not look up at him.

"But, what happened between us, it…"

"It was what?" her eyes snapped open, glaring menacingly at him, and she was leaning forward, as if she were a tiger ready to pounce on her prey. "What are you even talking about? Nothing happened between us. I'm a mudblood Gryffindor bookworm and anyone else would be better than me, so obviously nothing happened between us. I don't want to lose my position as head and I know you don't either, so let's not talk to each other unless it's absolutely necessary, otherwise stay out of my way, and I will surely stay out of yours," she pushed herself up from her chair and stomped upstairs and into her room. Slamming the door behind her.

Between her lack of information from Nick, and a turn of events with Malfoy, she was more angry than she had ever been before.

"Thank goodness Dumbledore allowed me to bring and charm my CD player to play at school this year," singing and listening to music was how she dealt with her problems.

She flipped the on switch a few minutes after she entered her room. My Chemical Romance's "I'm Not Okay" was blaring through the small speakers on her radio as she danced around her room and sang the lyrics at the top of her lungs. Music healed her soul of emotions she wished she did not feel. She listened to happy music too, but there was just something about listening to the pain of others that helped her through her own pain. She listened to pretty much every genre imaginable, well at least those in languages that she could understand, though she did have her favorites. She used music as a way of expressing herself. She always had trouble talking her problems out with people, plus who would she talk to anyways? Harry and Ron? Yeah right, they are guys and would not care about her stupid petty problems anyways. Ginny? She was too wrapped up in Blaise, and Blaise was too wrapped up in Ginny. Plus he was Malfoy's best friend. Lavender and Parvati? Yea right, the gossip sisters? Malfoy, NO WAY! That answer ends there, there are just too many reasons why that is a bad idea.

"_What will it take to show you that it's not the life it seems? I told you time and time again you sing the words but don't know what it means. To be a joke and look, another line without a hook. I held you close as we both shook for the last time take a good hard look!_" Why was she so upset anyway? It is not like she like him or anything. Did she? NOT WAY! He is MALFOY! But that kiss. She was just upset about Nick and it felt good to be kissed. It had not been that long, but she still missed the feeling. "_I'm not okay. I'm not okay. I'm not okay. You wear me out Forget about the dirty looks  
The photographs your boyfriend took. You said you read me like a book, but the pages are all torn and frayed" _

She planed to stay away from people this weekend. She needed to get control of herself. She had lost control, and she hated it when she lost control. She was going to stay away from her friends, Nick, and most especially Malfoy. She had plenty of things to do. She had homework she needed to catch up on, even if it was due a month from now, she had a lot of reading to do, she had her music, and she had soccer. All of those things calmed her down and she hoped that they worked for her this weekend. She would need all of the tricks she could find.

She danced around her room until she collapsed onto her bed near the end of the song. "_But you really need to listen to me, because I'm telling you the truth. I mean this, I'm okay!(Trust Me)I'm not okay. I'm not okay. Well, I'm not okay. I'm not o-fucking-kay. I'm not okay._"


	10. Somebody Hates Me

**Chapter 10- Somebody Hates Me**

"Where's Hermione?" Harry asked to no one in particular.

"I know, she like disappeared from Hogwarts or something," Lavender said in a ditzy voice.

"No she didn't. She still goes to classes, we just never see her otherwise," Blaise rolled his eyes at how dumb Lavender could be.

"She's upstairs in her room," Draco said nonchalantly. "What? You wanted to know where she was so I told you. Don't look at me like that. Don't even think what I know you're thinking Zabini! It's not like I'm stalking her, I do live here too you know," he defended himself while sounding exasperated because of the strange looks he was receiving from his friends. "Stop looking at me like that!"

"Getting so defensive over a simple look Draco," Blaise smirked at him. "Someone would think that you…"

"Don't you dare even finish that sentence or you will be running for your life Zabini," the whole group laughed at him, not noticing the hidden meaning behind Blaise's assumptions.

Draco, Blaise, Ginny, Harry, Ron, Lavender, and Parvati were all hanging out in the Head's common room. Over the past few weeks he had become "friends" with the people he had hated in the past. He has always been friends with Blaise, and Ginny, the little Weasley, was starting to grow on him. Parvati, well she was quite, when she was not gossiping about people with Lavender, but she was ok with him. He still had his doubts about Potter and Weasley. Potter was not so bad, but Weasley, he still drove him crazy and it was fun to get him riled up. Lavender did drive him nuts though, he did not think that that would ever change. 'How in the world does Weasley put up with her? Calling him Won-Won? What's that all about?' he thought to himself with a silent chuckle.

Draco sat silently watching his friends. He looked upon them feeling a bit left out, he kind of felt like the seventh wheel hanging out with all of these people. They all had their significant others and he sat there all alone. It made him wish that he had someone. Ginny sat tucked beneath Blaise's arm in the black leather chair next to him. Ron and Lavender were entangled in each other's arms in the other black leather chair. Harry and Parvati were sitting in front of the fire place talking with Blaise, Ginny, and him. This left him sitting alone on the large black leather couch, trying to ignore the disgusting sounds coming from his left.

He knew that Hermione had held herself up in her room everyday for the past month. It left the common room quiet and empty; much like his life seemed to be. He felt lost in this world since his family broke apart and he had to start thinking for himself. 'Stop it with the self-pity. This is your life so just deal with it.' Draco thought and turned his head to face the new person who had entered his common room.

This was not how her school year was supposed to go. She was not supposed to have closed herself up inside of her room, she was supposed to be out there having fun. She was supposed to hang out with her friends, meet new people, and get over Nick.

'Arggg…' she growled in frustration at the thought of Nick. He had been hanging around here a lot. Malfoy seemed to be much closer with her friends now-a-days. She did not think she liked the situation very much. They hung out in the head's common room during their free time. She had no peace. She sat in her room listening to her friends have fun with Malfoy, seemingly not worried about her one bit.

She looked back down at her homework and noticed there was a pattern of wet spots on the parchment sitting in front of her. "Oh No!" she quickly tried to blot the water before it got any worse. She had not even noticed that she was crying. "I worked so hard on this essay and it was almost finished." This made her cry even harder, and she gave up trying to fix her potion's essay. She pushed her parchment away from her and frantically tried to wipe away the tears that were covering her cheeks.

'Knock…knock…knock…' someone rapped on her door.

"Um…who is it?"

"It's Ginny, can I come in?"

"Um, just a minute," she walked to her full length mirror and hurriedly wiped away the tears that continued to drip down her cheeks.

"Hermione? Are you okay in there?" Ginny asked after a minute or so had gone by.

"I'm fine. Just…hang on a moment," the tears just kept coming, she could not seem to make them stop.

"Hermione, what are you doing in there?" Ginny seemed a bit angry at having to wait outside of the room.

Hermione finally gave up and flung her bedroom door open.

"What were you," she stopped at the notice of Hermione's tears. "Oh Hermione, I'm sorry I didn't realize," Ginny's voice had lost its angry tone and now gained a sympathetic tone to it at the sight of Hermione's tears.

"What's wrong? Have you been up here crying all the time? Is that why you don't come out and see us anymore? Why have you been crying?"

"Ginny!" Hermione interrupted her stream of questions. "I'm fine."

"Well, why were you crying?"

"I…I…I was just thinking about home and it made me sad," she lied. How could she tell her about Nick and Malfoy and well, everything.

"Well, come down and hang out with us," Ginny glanced around her friend's room and noticed the vast amounts of parchment and books lying everywhere. "It's Friday night. I am sure you're caught up on homework until Christmas and we haven't talked in forever. PLEASE!" she begged.

What was she going to say? She was all caught up on all of her homework. The only thing stopping her was the knowledge of who was in the other room. "Well, I…"

"No excuses, you're coming downstairs," Ginny grabbed her arm and started to drag her out of the room.

"Wait! I mean, at least give me a minute to get cleaned up. I would rather not go down there looking like this."

"Fine, but if you aren't down there in fifteen minutes, I will have the boys come up and carry you down stairs."

"I swear! Just…give me a few minutes," she did not dare defy Ginny, as her threats were never empty.

Ginny turned and walked back into the common room, leaving Hermione's door open a crack. Hermione walked over to her mirror and took her ponytail down, leaving her hair in wet curls. Her face was red and blotchy, so she walked into the bathroom to put a bit of makeup on.

"Hey Nick," she heard Ginny's voice say loudly before she left her room.

"SHIT! Could things get any worse?" She hurried and put some makeup on and tried to make her hair look respectable. 'I can not let him see me like this.' She ended up throwing half of her hair up into a gold clip, and then walked into her room to find something to wear. She decided on a pair of ultra low rise, faded blue jeans and a green spaghetti strap tank top that ended right above her belly button, showing off her green belly button ring.

"HERMIONE!" Ginny bellowed from below.

"Give her a minute, I'm sure she will come down," Draco gave Blaise a knowing glance, and then directed his glance towards Nick so Blaise would get the point. This caused Blaise to keep Ginny firmly planted in her seat before she could jump up to find Hermione.

Hermione put in her large silver hoops and fixed her green toe ring, which had moved to an uncomfortable position in her rush. She did not need shoes, so she took one last glance in the mirror and with a deep calming breath, she ventured down the stairs and into the common room. She stopped at the bottom of the stairs when she noticed the only seat left was on the couch between Malfoy and Nick.

'Somebody hates me,' she grumbled bitterly and walked towards the couch.

"She's alive," Ron said enthusiastically.

"Not funny Ronald," she snapped and he quickly shut his mouth.

She eyed each of them and noticed they each had a beer in their hands. She looked at the sweating bottles of Corona longingly. 'I want one,' she whined inside of her head as she watched the condensation drip down the shapely neck of the bottle in Malfoy's hand. It dripped his long, pale, boney finger, which was lightly caressing the bottle in a smooth back and forth motion. The bottle was so close, but so out of reach. 'Wait, Muggle beer?' she ripped her thoughts from the sensual motions Malfoy was making with his bottle. Suddenly a beer was being dangled in front of her face, and she was about to reach for it when Ginny spoke.

"Hermione, you don't want to drink that, it's beer," she said in a motherly voice. "Um…Nick, sorry we haven't introduced you to Hermione, but well since you don't know her, well…Hermione isn't really one that would drink, and…" she stopped talking when Hermione grabbed the bottle out of Nick's hand and ripped the cap off using the coffee table and her hand, a trick she had actually picked up from Nick. She tipped the bottle back, along with her head, and guzzled half the bottle. The cool amber liquid felt good going down her throat. The smell and the feeling brought back memories from the Muggle world. Corona was Megan's and her beer of choice; they did not do that chick liquor shit. She looked around and noticed everyone was staring at her with wide eyes and with their mouths dropped to the floor, well except for Nick who was smiling proudly at her and was drinking from his beer as if nothing out of the ordinary was going on.

"Glad to see you can still do that Hermione," Nick raised his bottle to her as if he were toasting to her and then took a swig from it.

"How could I ever forget?" she said smirking in Nick's direction. "Muggle beer huh? Never thought you guys would have had it in you. Good choice though, Corona is the best." Hermione said guzzling the rest of the bottle and go up to get another one.

"Wait, let me," Nick said and she sat back down. "I thought you might like it, I seemed to have gotten these guys hooked a bit," he said handing her a cold one from the fridge and she opened it as she had before.

"I should have guessed that you had something to do with this," she raised her bottle and looked into his eyes, quickly turning away and finding the label on her bottle quite interesting. "So, Nick, what classes are you taking? I don't see you around ever so I was just curious," she sat up straight and gained some of her confidence back, while giving Nick a look like 'why the hell have you been avoiding me and my questions?'

"Oh, well," he suddenly became shy. "The usual I guess. Transfiguration, Charms, Herbology, Potions, you know. I've been working closely with Snape, since I want to become a potions master."

"You chose to work with Snape?" Ron burst out. "Good luck, evil bastard he…"

"RON!" Hermione glared at him. "Stop talking while you're ahead." She noticed that Malfoy and Blaise were giving him glares as well, but had restrained themselves from lashing out at him. 'At least they have some self control, unlike Ron the babbling idiot over there.' She thought with a silent chuckle.

"So, Nick, you've been here about a month right?" everyone stared at Lavender in anticipation for the out there question that was about to be asked. "Have you found any love interests yet?" Ok, not so out there, but it was definitely worse than Hermione expected.

She lifted the cool bottle to her lips and guzzled the rest of her beer at his answer. "There are a lot of beautiful girls here, but I left someone at home."

A tear slipped down Hermione's cheek. She did not know if she could handle this. She wanted…no she needed answer, but she was not sure if she wanted to relive this painful memory in front of her friends.

"Aww…do you love her? How long have you been together? How did you meet her? What is she like? Is she beautiful?..." it was the most hurtful string of questions Lavender had ever let slip from her mouth. She was unintentionally breaking the fraction of Hermione's heart that was left, into a million pieces.

'Be strong Hermione. You'll get through this. If you want to hang out with your friends, you're going to have to be with him too. Don't let him get to you.' She looked at her friends and noticed the only face looking at her was Malfoy's. The rest of her friends were staring at Lavender who was still spewing out random questions concerning Nick's girlfriend. 'Why is he all blurry?' she rubbed her eyes and noticed she had tears running down her cheeks. When she looked back at Malfoy, she noticed that he was not looking at her and laughing because she was crying, which was what she expected, but his facial expression told her that he was worried. 'Is he worried? I wonder what he could be worried about. It can't be me. Can it?' She looked down at her hands and she faded back into the conversation when Nick began to speak.

"Officially, we've only been together for about a month, just before I left for Hogwarts. It was kind of unexpected that we ended up together. I met her about 4 months ago at a party when my family went to Hawaii for the summer. We weren't really together before school started, because I had a girlfriend before her. This girl doesn't even compare to my girlfriend from before. She was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen and I loved her with all of my heart."

"Why did you leave her?" Lavender cut in but continued looking at him anxiously.

"Because I royally screwed up while I was in Hawaii. I don't really think I should be talking about this. I…"

"No," Hermione interrupted. "I think that you should continue," she watched him with a glare. She could find out her information with out her friends ever knowing that it was her he was talking about screwing over. Malfoy would know, but whatever he would probably find out anyway. He did share a common room with her.

"Hermione," Harry gave her a stern look. "Don't go barging into other people's personal lives, you barely know him and he obviously doesn't want to talk about it."

"Don't talk about things you know nothing about Harry," she glared at him. "Nick really, please continue with your story. I am sure that no one would think BADLY about you for what you have to say," she smirked at Nick and watched him swallow hard as he looked her in the eye.

"Well," he began.

"Hermione, can I talk to you in your room for a moment?" Ginny was now standing in front of her with her arms crossed over her chest and she was glaring at Hermione.

"No, I am really interested in what Nicholas has to say," she kept her eyes on Nick. "So just go and sit down with Blaise and listen to his nice little story."

"HERMIONE!" Ginny grabbed her arm and drug her upstairs into her room.

"Let me go," Hermione said in a dangerously low voice after Ginny had shut Hermione's bedroom door.

"What the hell has come over you? You barely know that kid and you are pushing him for painful information that he obviously doesn't want to share. And this?" she grabbed the bottle out of Hermione's hand and was waving her hands like a mad woman. "You were drinking? Who are you and what have you done with Hermione?"

"This is me! This is the me that no one knows. This is the real me and if you don't like it then you can just…" Hermione broke off.

"I can just what Hermione? Say it, you know you want to. I can just bugger off?"

"I, I didn't mean it like that Ginny. I'm sorry. There are a lot of things about my life that you guys don't know. When I am at school, you only see one part of me. You only see the studious, good girl part of me. That isn't all of who I am Ginny." Ginny looked at her in confusion. "Nevermind, you just wouldn't understand. I promise not to push Nick for anymore information. I am sorry that I was pushing him and it made you guys feel uncomfortable. Let's go back downstairs, I promise I'll be good."

"Ok," Ginny really had no other words. "Wait! No more beer for you tonight. Let's uh…leave you getting drunk for the first time for the second time you've ever drank, Ok?"

"Ok Ginny," Hermione gave up. 'They will just never see that I am so much more than their little bookworm Hermione,' she thought to herself sadly.

"Oh and you should really apologize to Nick you know," Ginny threw over her shoulder nonchalantly as they walked out of Hermione's room, and Hermione just stared at the back of her friend's head in shock.

"What in the hell came over Hermione?" Ron said re-wrapping his arms around Lavender who had shifted in his lap.

"I know," Harry said. "It's like she went crazy or something. You know Nick; it isn't really like her to be like that."

"It's ok. Everyone has one of those days I guess," Nick laughed nervously and played with the bottle in his hands and avoided the look that Draco was giving him.

"You should tell her," Nick heard Draco say quietly while everyone was talking amongst themselves about Hermione. "She has a right to know."

"She told you?"

"Accidentally after you left her here a complete mess about a month ago. She just wants answers and I think that you at least owe her that."

"I know that I do but she will hate me,"

"Even more than she already does?" Draco looked at him with raised eyebrows.

"I'm sorry for the way I acted," Draco and Nick both looked up into the face of Hermione with shock. "It was wrong of me to push you for information about something that doesn't even concern me," her apology was more of a warning than an actual apology towards Nick. She sat between the two boys again, crossed her legs beneath her, and folded her hands gently in her lap, not expecting a reply from Nick.

"I understand your questions, and I promise to give you answers soon," he whispered in her ear. "I just am afraid of losing any hope of us at least being friends. I miss you. I miss holding you, kissing you, and I really miss just being with you. If I could take back what I did I would, but I can't and I just need some time to gain some courage to inform you of the details of the mistakes that I have made."

"It better be soon, or you will have no hope Nick," she ended the conversation and began talking with her friends again.

"Let's do something?" Malfoy spoke up to try and break the tension between Nick and Hermione, because it was making him uncomfortable to hear every word that they exchanged.

"Let's play a game!" Lavender said excitedly. "Spin the bottle? Seven Minutes in Heaven? Truth or Dare?" everyone groaned in between each game title. "Fine, how about that one…what's it called? That drinking game where you say something you haven't done before and those who have done it have to take a drink?"

"I never?" Hermione spoke up.

"YEAH!" Lavender said excitedly, and since people did not groan, she figured that everyone agreed it was a good idea. "Go and get a beer Hermione and we'll start playing." Hermione looked at Ginny, and when she nodded in approval, Hermione got a beer and then joined the circle once again so that the game could begin.


	11. I Never

**Chapter 11- I Never**

"So…who wants to start?" Lavender scanned the room looking each person in the eye with a slight smirk on her face. "Won-Won? Harry? Ginny? Ahhh…how about you Blaise? What is something you have never done?"

"I hate this game, I always lose," Draco heard Hermione mumble quietly from beside him.

'I must have heard her wrong,' he thought to himself. 'Maybe I didn't get the point, and maybe you lose if you really have never done any of these things before.'

"I've never…" Blaise had a thoughtful look on his face. "I've never skipped a class before."

"You are so lame," Draco rolled his eyes at his best friend and took a drink, joined by Harry and Ron.

"I've never fancied a teacher," Ginny looked directly at Lavender and Parvati as they both took a drink but also noticed Hermione drink as well. "Hermione? Who?"

"Lockhart back in second year," she shrugged. "I was young and he was good looking, so sue me. Malfoy, your turn and make it good, not this sissy crap," she said not giving the other girls a chance to explain their elder love interests.

"Alright, let's see here," he rubbed his hands together and grinning mischievously. "I don't think this crowd is quite ready to bring out the good stuff but we'll start small and work our way up. I've never kissed a guy before." The girls drank, as did Harry and Ron.

"I KNEW IT!" Draco announced pointing at the boys.

"IT WAS A DARE!" They screamed in unison at the looks on everyone's faces, and the accusation made by Draco. Hermione laughed at the memory of their kiss last year when Dean dared Harry to kiss Ron during one of the Gryffindor's late night games of truth or dare.

"I've never…cheated on my significant other," Hermione looked pointedly at Nick, who was the only one who drank, but no one dared to ask any questions seeing how the conversation went earlier.

"I've never gotten drunk by playing "I Never" before," Hermione scowled at the triumphant look on Nick's face as she was the only one who took a drink of the cool amber liquid in her bottle, never letting her look falter from Nick's eyes.

"Hermione, you're only supposed to drink when you have done it," Ginny said in a motherly tone.

"I know how to play the game Ginny," she bit back. "Ron, your turn."

"Um…I've…I've never," he tried to think quickly. "I've never wanted to read a book or do homework more than be with my friends," everyone laughed as Hermione took a sip.

"Shut up," she smiled. She knew she was a geek to her Hogwarts friends. 'If they only knew.'

"I've never kissed a girl," Lavender said. Each of the guys drank, but what shocked everyone, besides Nick, was that Hermione drank as well. "Hermione? Really?"

"Do we have to do this "Hermione? Really?" every time I drink?" she said in a mocking tone. "Yes I have kissed and made out with girls, more than once actually," she said nonchalantly. "You know…dares, giving friends the help and guidance they need. The usual."

"Good times, good times," Nick leaned back against the couch and smiled with a dreamy look on his face. "Uh…I mean I wish I could have seen that," he said shifting his gaze nervously around the room and snapped back from his fond memories when Hermione smacked him in the arm.

"I've never gotten a tattoo," Harry looked at Blaise, who drank followed by Draco, Nick, and Hermione. "Ok, now you all have to show us," he really just wanted to see Hermione's.

"My father branded me so as never to forget where I came from when I was 14," Draco took off his tight black t-shirt and showed the medium sized Malfoy crest he had on his right shoulder blade.

"Me too, well basically," Blaise had his last name on the middle of his back.

"I just like mine," Nick shrugged and showed took off his shirt showing that he had a cross in between his shoulder blades, and around his right bicep he had a thin barbed wire chain with a heart in the middle on the inside of his arm, which Hermione had talked him into getting with her on their one year anniversary.

"Your turn Hermione," Nick put his black Linkin Park shirt back on and left everyone to focus on her.

"Alright, alright," she took out her wand and mumbled a charm.

"Hermione, you can't just make them up and put them on your body now that we want to see them," Ron said rolling his eyes.

"Thank you Ron, I understand the point of the game. I used a concealment charm on them," she rolled her eyes and shook her head slightly at Ron's stupid comment. "They are one hundred percent real, believe me the pain proves that they are real." First she reveled a thin barbed wire chain with a heart, identical to Nick's, appear around her right ankle, then she turned around and on the small of her back she had a small blood read heart surrounded by orange and yellow flames. Saving the most intimately placed one for last; she unbuttoned her jeans, since they were too tight to just pull down, and pulled down the left hand side, reveling a sliver of her black thong, to just below where her waist band sat. There she had the tattoo of a lion cub sitting and looking at her friends proudly. "That's all of them," she buttoned her jeans back up and sat back down on the couch.

"You have the same tattoo as Nick," Parvati pointed out.

"Hey, you do," Ron added pointing to her ankle.

"I was more focused on the lion on your hip," Draco whispered huskily into her ear.

"It must be a popular tattoo," Hermione was a bit flustered from Draco's comment and looked at Nick silently telling him "don't you dare say anything about why we have the same one." "Lavender, your turn," she announced to get the attention off of her.

"I've never been skinny dipping," she blushed as she saw that everyone else took a drink.

"I've never gotten anything pierced," Ron said while Hermione and Blaise both took a drink. "Where?" Ron asked Blaise, and watched him stick out his tongue and flick it, to reveal a barbell through the middle.

"It's glow in the dark," Blaise smirked and nodded his head proudly.

"Seriously? Awesome," Hermione said remembering her own.

"And we can all see yours clearly Hermione," he glanced at her belly button.

"Besides my belly button, I have my ears, and I also used to have my tongue pierced, but I had to get rid of it,"

"We all have our ears pierced Hermione," Lavender said as if that were obvious.

"Thank you Lavender. Wait, you had your tongue pierced? When?" Ron asked surprised.

"Yeah, I got it done the summer before sixth year, but I couldn't have it in when I played soccer, and it just got too hard trying to take it out and put it back in all the time so I let it heal like 3 months ago," she looked at Nick who was smirking, obviously remembering her tongue ring and the things she used to do with it. "Harry."

"Oh um…I've never received oral sex."

'Nice timing on that one,' Hermione thought, also remembering the things she used to do with her tongue ring.

"It's gross," Parvati said exasperatedly since everyone was staring at her. "Why would I want to put that in my mouth? I mean, think about what you do with it," everyone laughed at this comment.

"It's not so bad," Hermione said taking a drink. "Plus, you have to give to receive, which is the whole point anyways," she smiled at the memory of her and Nick's first exchange before he left for Hawaii. "Otherwise, it wouldn't be worth it," no one quite realized what she had said besides Nick, Draco, and Blaise, but everyone except for Ginny and Parvati took a sip from their bottles.

"I've never given oral sex," Parvati said proudly and everyone besides Ginny and Harry drank.

"Back to you Blaise."

"I've never used sex toys, on myself or anyone else," no body drank. "Sorry, I couldn't think of anything else, but…good to know I guess."

"I've never had sex," Ginny said proudly and everyone besides Hermione drank, not to anyone's surprise.

"I've never had sex on a broom," Draco looked at Ron as he and Lavender took a drink.

"Wait…how did you know?" Ron looked at Draco worridly.

"You shouldn't do it outside of people's windows. It was quite disturbing to hear you two going at it outside of my window last weekend while I was trying to sleep," Ron and Lavender both blushed furiously and Lavender hid her face in the crook of Ron's neck.

"That was YOU!" Hermione said. "Dear lord I couldn't sleep so I had to go to the common room to get away from listening to the two of you." The couple turned a deeper shade of red.

The group took a quick break from the game to refresh their beers and when they sat back down, it was Hermione's turn.

"I'm bored and I don't have anything else to say in this game," Hermione whined. "If we HAVE to keep playing, just skip me."

"Alright, my turn," Nick said quickly, searching for something he's never done. "I've never had a threesome." Draco and Blaise were the only ones who drank.

"I've never had sex while people watched or watched anyone have sex," Ron said, only Draco and Blaise drank once again.

"Can we stop now?" Hermione whined.

"No, I want to go, then we can be done," Lavender said with a pout. "I've never given a striptease or lap dance."

Hermione smirked at Nick and took two drinks. "I've done both," everyone looked at her as if she had grown another head, but she only stood up, disposed of her empty bottle, and said, "oops…look at the time I should be getting to bed. Good night guys, see you tomorrow." With that, she bounced her way upstairs and left everyone staring at her back.

"She's right, it is getting late, we should be heading back to our own common rooms," Harry said ignoring Hermione's odd behavior and pulling Parvati up from off of the floor. "Goodnight guys," Ron, Lavender, Harry, and Parvati left the common room followed by Ginny, who stopped to see why Blaise wasn't coming.

"I need to talk to Draco for a minute, I'll see you tomorrow," he got up and gave her a quick kiss. "Goodnight," she left quickly followed by Nick.

"So uh…interesting night huh?" Draco said uncomfortably, wondering what Blaise had to say to him.

"Yeah, no kidding," Blaise crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Who would have thought all of that stuff about Hermione huh?"

"Yeah well, I guess you never really know."

"Yeah I guess," Blaise nodded his head. "Be nice to her dude, this was fun and I think that she needed this as much as her friends did. You can't deny that it wasn't fun and you can't deny that you didn't need to do something like this. Don't screw her up again."

"Shut up Blaise, go back to your room," Draco scowled. "I promise to be good ok?" he said after a moment, when he received a pointed look from Blaise.

"Night," Blaise disappeared through the portrait hole and Draco looked up the stairs when he heard soft footsteps coming down.

"Um…I just needed some water," she continued her descent, watching her feet until she got to the bottom. "You know all that alcohol. I just needed…"

"It's cool. You don't have to explain anything to me," he smiled at her as she walked past him into the kitchen. "Well, except for the fact that you became a totally unfamiliar person to me tonight," he turned around and smirked at her back.

"I was hoping that you wouldn't bring any of that up," she groaned and turned around to face him. "I just do things a little differently than most people here expect that I do. There is nothing different about me as a person now than there ever was before."

"Yes, except that I never would have guessed you of all people had this," he put his right pointer finger on her hip and pushed on the soft fabric of her red plaid pajama pants down until it reveled a sleeping lion cub, curled up into a ball. "It moves?"

"Yeah," she blushed at the fact that he was touching her in such an intimate place. "It's a wizarding tattoo. It reacts to my feelings and emotions. It doesn't move around on my body, but it takes different positions when my mood changes. Right now I am tired so he is sleeping."

"Interesting," he said thoughtfully. "I'll have to get one of those. Where'd you get it done?"

"I did it," she chuckled to herself. "I came a crossed it in a book at the end of fourth year and always wanted to get one, so over the summer I read up on how to do it and did it myself. Who says you can't learn interesting things from a book?"

"So, since you did it by magic, did it hurt?" he seemed truly curious about the whole ordeal.

"Yeah, about as much as getting a regular tattoo," she shrugged. "I guess even though someone came up with a spell to do it, they couldn't take out the pain. It wasn't too bad though, unless you have a very low tolerance to pain, which I don't."

"Could you," he was still examining her lion cub and caressing it with the tip of his finger. "Could you…uh…maybe…uh…could you do the spell again?"

'He is kinda cute when he is nervous,' she thought with a smile. "I could, but I don't really need…"

"For me?"

"Oh...well…um…sure," their eyes met as soon as she had agreed. "Do you want to do it now or…?"

"Tomorrow?" he sounded like a child who had just been told that he could go and pick out anything he wanted from the toy store.

"Sure, tomorrow," she smiled. "I am going to go and get some water and go to bed. You think about what you want and where you want it and we'll do it tomorrow," She walked past him but turned back around quickly. "That sounded bad. Anyways, you know what I meant. Goodnight Malfoy," she continued her path into the kitchen. She pulled up the side of her pants, which Malfoy had pulled down, so that they sat low, but evenly, on her hips once again. She gulped down an ice cold glass of water, and then climbed back upstairs to the bathroom to wash her face and brush her teeth.

She climbed into her nice warm bed, wearing her red plaid pajama pants and a black camisole tank top. She instantly closed her eyes and fell into a fantasy filled sleep, about someone she never would have expected would consume her thoughts in such a way.

**I am SO sorry I haven't updated in a while and that I left it at Ch. 10 like I did. Please don't hate me! I didn't add the game to the last chapter because I thought that it would be really long and drawn out. Anyways I hope that you liked it. And the moving tattoo was a really cute idea that I got from someone else's story. I just really liked the idea and wished that I could take credit for it, but I can't it was all another author's idea. Well, here is another chapter down and I hope you enjoyed. Oh, and to who ever asked about why Ginny won't let Hermione drink beer well, it is because she doesn't think that Hermione has ever drank alcohol and she is just trying to ease her into the experience. I had a similar experience with my friends so I know it isn't totally out there. Her friends truly don't realize all of the "experience" that Hermione has with things they think she knows nothing about. Thanks to all of you who reviewed. I hope you are enjoying my story; I am having fun writing it. I start school next week, but I will definitely post another chapter before Saturday. Adios.**


	12. Maybe Things Won't Be So Bad After All

**Chapter 12- Maybe Things Won't Be So Bad After All**

"Mmm…" Hermione awoke to being surrounded by the warmth of her down comforter and her soft, silky, blue pillow case caressing her cheek as she stretched beneath the covers. The sun was pouring in through a small opening in her curtains, so she kept her eyes closed tight and snuggled deeper into the warmth. She only opened her eyes, squinting them immediately at the bright intrusion of light, when she had reached the point where she knew she could no longer even try to go back to sleep. Hermione stood from her bed, let her pant legs fall to the floor soundlessly, and stretched her bare arms high above her head, falling forward slightly as she did so. Catching her balance, she stumbled towards the bathroom and tried to ignore the consistent throbbing in her head. "How much did I drink last night?" she stopped at her window and violently threw the dark blue curtains closed to keep the offending light from continuously pouring in.

As she finally reached the bathroom, she opened the door and shielded her eyes from the bright light reflecting off of the crisp clean white decor. She walked towards the shower, which she did not realize was running until she threw open the shower curtain reveling a very tall, very wet, and very naked Draco Malfoy.

"AHHHHH!" she just stood there in surprise. "I'm…I'm…I'm so sorry. I had no clue you were in here."

"Are you just going to stand there?" he just stood there and stared at her, not even making a move to cover himself up.

"Um…" she was not thinking about his question, she did actually not even comprehend a word that he was saying. She was completely mesmerized by the sight before her.

"Join me then why don't you?" If he was embarrassed at the intrusion, he definitely did not show it. He stood with his back towards her giving her a very nice view of his very firm arse. She was staring at him openly, not able to tear her eyes away from the sight before her.

"Sorry," she mumbled and closed the shower curtain. She blushing furiously as she turned and walked over to the sink, washed her face, and brushed her teeth. She tried to ignore the slideshow of images that continuously reeled through her mind; they were images of Malfoy, naked.

Before she had time to leave, Malfoy had opened the shower curtain and was now standing at the sink next to her clad in only an emerald green towel which hung low on his waist. His hair was dripping wet, and the droplets of water rolled down his muscular and well chiseled upper body and seeped into the towel, 'You should not be thinking about Malfoy this way Hermione, and you should definitely not be thinking about that part of him. STOP IT! STOP IT RIGHT NOW!' she silently reprimanded herself. 'I must be mad.'

"Um…Good morning," Malfoy said a bit nervously as he pulled out his tooth brush, noticing that she was looking at him, but smiled as soon as he noticed where her eyes had drifted off to.

"Good morning," she quickly looked away, a pink blush working its way up her cheeks once again. "Sorry about, uh…walking in on you this morning."

"Really, it's ok," he smiled at her discomfort. "I have seen you in this very bathroom, I guess it was only time before you saw me." 'Merlin she is cute when she does that,' he noticed her blush growing darker with every word he spoke. "Plus, it isn't as if neither of us has seen the naked body of the opposite sex before, right?" he wiggled his eyebrows at her as he put some toothpaste on his toothbrush.

"I knew last night was going to come back to haunt me," Hermione walked behind Malfoy and pushed him through the door leading to his room, not paying any attention to his protests about needing to brush his teeth. "Couldn't you have given me at least a few hours to try and wake up and most importantly try to forget?" she left him no time to answer. "I need to take a shower. Now…OUT!" she closed the door on his face, and turned around, stripping down as she walked, and then climbed into the shower after she had turned on the hot water.

She let the hot water run down her body, soothing her aching muscles. Drinking took a lot out of her. It usually took a lot to get her drunk, but even a buzz –like she had last night— left her aching and with a hell of a headache the next morning. She gently let her head fall backwards, letting the water massage her throbbing temples. She used to tell herself that she would never drink again when she woke up feeling this way, but she never went through with it. Continuing to drink constantly with her friends over the summer, she learned a few tricks that helped to sooth her raging hangovers, and planned on implementing those tricks into her morning routine just as soon as she finished showering and got dressed. She washed her hair and body, loving the soothing smell of her cool moisture body wash. She rinsed herself off and put her head under the stream of water falling from the shower head, as she turned off the water. Blindly reaching for her purple fluffy towel, which was hanging over the top of shower curtain, she dried her face, so that she could see. She thoroughly dried her body; towel dried her hair, and then wrapped the towel tightly around her body so as not to let it slip as she picked up her clothes and walked back into her bedroom, leaving a trail of tiny water droplets on the carpet as she made her way through the room towards her closet.

Searching through her closet, she finally decided upon wearing an ultra low rise, bleached, denim mini skirt, and a hot pink halter top, that showed off a bit of cleavage and clung tightly to every inch of her torso. She put half of her hair up into a small silver clip, put on some light eye shadow, black eyeliner and mascara, and a small amount of light pink sparkly lip gloss, and slid her feet into a pair of simple hot pink flip flops, before walking downstairs into the common room. Upon entering the common room, she noticed Malfoy sitting in one of the chairs facing away from her, with his hands folded neatly behind his head, which was resting back upon them. He had his eyes closed and seemed to either be napping or in deep thought. She took it as the later, since when she walked past him and into the kitchen saying loudly in his ear, "Malfoy" in acknowledgement of course; he jumped and placed his hand on his heart.

"Don't DO that!" he was breathing heavily. "You scared the hell out of me."

"Good," she walked over to the cabinet and got out a cup and some aspirin. "Having hell in you would make you evil and we wouldn't want that now would we?" She took three aspirin out of the bottle, placed the bottle back in the cabinet, and filled the glass up with cold water.

"What?" Malfoy watched her place the aspirin in her mouth and swallow them along with the whole glass of water.

"Never mind," she washed her glass, dried it, placed it back in the cabinet, and then walked over to the chair across from Malfoy and plopped herself down in it. She crossed her right leg over her left, almost seductively, and looked at him thoughtfully. "What were you thinkin' about?"

"Huh? Oh, nothing," he said avoiding her gaze, and looking anywhere but at her.

"Oh yeah? Well…" she wondered if she should even bring it up. "About last night,"

"Yeah, um…I promise…"

"Wait, I was more along the lines of the tattoo," she made herself clear. "But what is this that you promise?"

"Oh nothing," he perked up a bit. "Yeah, um...about the tattoo,"

"Wait, I want to know what you were going to promise me,"

"It was nothing," Draco was still looking elsewhere. "I'm a Malfoy I don't make promises."

"I'm a Malfoy, I don't make promises," she mocked him in a deep macho voice and then giggled.

"Shut up Granger," he rolled his eyes and shook his head at her childish antics. "Can we please leave this subject and get back to talking about the tattoo?"

"Well, I was just wondering," she asked calmly. "Do you still want to do it?"

"Yeah!" he replied a bit too quickly. "I mean, if you are still willing to that is."

"Sure," she played with her hands. The way they were acting, you would think that they were trying to decide something as dramatic as getting ready to have sex or something. "Do you want to do it now or do you want to…" at that very moment, her stomach decided to answer the question for her, loudly as a matter of fact.

"Or we could go to breakfast first?" Malfoy laughed but stopped as soon as his stomach began to growl as well.

"I see that we both could use some food," she laughed at the coincidence. "Let's go down to the great hall then, shall we?" they both stood up and Malfoy allowed her to walk through the portrait hole first.

They walked down to the great hall together, talking animatedly about the information they had gained about their friends from the previous night's activity. They also talked about Lavender and "Won-Won's" relationship and how their interactions drove both of them absolutely crazy. Finally reaching the great hall, they went their separate ways towards their house tables. Malfoy took a seat next to Blaise and across from Pansy, and Hermione sat between Harry and Nick and across from Ron and Lavender, whom once again were acting upon those interactions her and Malfoy had been talking about not five minutes ago. She chuckled to herself, and engrossed herself in conversation with Harry, Parvati, and Nick. They were talking about last night's activities as well, though their conversation seemed to be leaning towards the antics of a certain brown-haired Gryffindor Head Girl. She mainly just listened to what they had to say about her, but she noticed that Nick tried to play it off as if he were totally surprised by the fact that Hermione "the good girl Gryffindor" did things such as drink, kiss girls, and talk about sex and the sexual actions she has DONE!

"How are you feeling this morning Hermione?" Nick turned the conversation away from their game of "I never" and smiled at her knowingly.

"I have a brilliant headache thank you for asking," she said cheerful, knowing full well that he knew of the hangovers she got from the slightest bit of alcohol. "That's why you never told me how to make it," she looked at the cup that Nick had just spelled and push in front of her.

"Yup," he said with a big grin on his face. "And I'm still not telling you. Drink up," he said enthusiastically.

"Oh come on," she pouted. "What if I need it again?"

"Just drink it and feel better," he laughed at her pout which she was having trouble keeping as a pout at the moment. "And as for next time, you will just have to come and find me I guess."

"Thanks," Hermione reached for the cup and gulped it down, instantly feeling her headache melt away. "Not having that was probably the reason why I never drank at school before," she whispered so that no one else could hear, though they were involved in conversation that was not including them at the moment. 'Maybe things won't be so bad after all,' she thought to herself and began eating her breakfast before it got cold.

"Good morning," Draco said brightly as he slid on to the bench next to Blaise.

"What's gotten into you?" Pansy smiled from across the table.

"So are you trying to get Granger to show you some of her skills first hand Draco?" Millicent smirked from Pansy's left.

"You told them about the game?" Draco looked at Blaise incredulously.

"They were walking behind Ginny and me on the way to breakfast," he said shrugging. "I didn't mean to," he added defensively at the look he received from Draco.

"So is it really true that she drinks?" Millicent asked curiously.

"Has she really done sexual things?" Pansy asked.

"Why are you looking at me? I know as much information on the subject of Granger as anyone else who was there last night," he said defensively. 'Well, maybe except for Nick. There were an awful lot of silent exchanges between those two last night. I'll have to talk to her about it later,' he added as an after thought to himself.

The conversation between the four slytherins about Granger continued, without the added commentary of Draco, who just sat and listened intently.

"Hey, let's go play some Quidditch," Draco interjected as to stop the girls from coming up with wild stories to spread around school about the head girl.

"Quidditch?" the girls asked in unison with equal looks of disgust present on their faces.

"You don't have to play," Blaise said. "You could watch. Or…you can not even come at all!" he added sarcastically.

"We'll come and watch," the girls shared a brief glance. "You will you invite that cute boy Nick to play?" Pansy asked with a dream look on her face.

"You know he had a girlfriend right?" Draco asked proudly, since he knew something they didn't.

"Yeah, we heard," Millicent sounded disappointed. "But he is still nice to look at," she lost her disappointment and the girls sighed. "Maybe, he will play with his shirt off..."

"Fine," Draco said before the girls could continue their rambling about how cute Nick was. "Let's go ask them to play."

Blaise rolled his eyes at the girls and smiled at Draco knowingly and followed him over to the Gryffindor's table.

"We're going to go and play some Quidditch, you guys in?" Hermione turned around to see Malfoy, Blaise, Pansy, and Millicent standing behind her.

"Sure," Harry said excitedly. "Let's go," Harry and Ron stood up, dragging Parvati and Lavender with them, followed by Ginny. "Nick? Hermione? Are you guys coming?"

"Sure, why not," Nick said standing up from his seat.

"I think I'm going to finish eating. Maybe I'll come out later," she turned around to finish eating her breakfast.

"You guys go on, I'll be there in a minute," she heard Malfoy say and then felt his leg brush against her side as he sat down beside her. "You sure you don't want to come out and watch me in action?"

"Shut up Malfoy," she laughed and looked him in the eye.

"No really about us doing that tattoo thing?" he whispered so as not to draw attention to them. "Can we do it later?"

"Of course," she said. "Whenever's fine."

"You aren't going to go and hold yourself back up in your room again are you?" he smiled a genuine smile. "You shouldn't have anymore homework to do for a while, and I know you…"

"No, I'm just hungry. I was thinking about going out for a run when I was finished though since you guys are going out there anyways," she continued to eat. "So I'll see you outside in a few minutes?"

"Sure," he smiled and stood up. "I knew you couldn't resist watching me in action."

"Stop being so full of yourself," she chuckled and watched him leave the great hall with a shake of her head. "He is so damn arrogant."

Parvati, Lavender, Pansy, and Millicent were sitting in the Gryffindor stands gossiping and talking about how hot the boys flying around in the sky were.

"You guys should totally come and hang out with us," Lavender said to Pansy and Millicent. "It would be so much fun."

"Totally," Pansy said in a similarly ditzy voice.

"Hey, who's that?" Millicent said pointing at the figure of a girl running around on the ground below.

"I don't know," Parvati said. "Should we go and check."

"Sure," Lavender said excitedly. "I'll go and be right back," she jumped up and ran down the stairs and onto the pitch. "Hermione?" the figure stopped running and turned around in search of where the voice came from.

"Hey Lavender," Hermione began to run towards the girl who was standing at the edge of the pitch. "What's up?"

"What are you doing down here?"

"Oh," she placed her hands on her hips and tried to catch her breath. "I was just going for a run. You can join me if you'd like."

"Um…no," Lavender sounded disgusted at the very idea of running around and chasing that weird black and white ball. "Pansy, Millicent, and Parvati are waiting up there for me," she said pointing towards the Gryffindor stands. "You should come and join us and watch the boys play, well and Ginny."

"I may after I finish my run," she said starting to catch her breath. "Sound good?"

"Sure," Lavender still looked at Hermione as if she were crazy. "Well, I'm going to go back up, have…fun," Hermione laughed at Lavender's obvious disgust for her exercising and began to run once again.

She was not sure how long she had been running for, but she screamed when a tall, blond figure landed their broom directly in front of her path, halting her movements. "You scared me half to death," she placed her right hand over her heart and tried to slow her quick breathing, noticing that her friends were quickly landing their brooms right behind Malfoy.

"Too bad not all the way to death huh Hermione?" Ron said walking over to her and draping a heavy arm over her shoulders.

"If she was scared to death, who would be the "angel" sitting on my right shoulder to reflect the opinions of the "devil" (he pointed to Malfoy) who sits on my left shoulder." Harry said trying to hold back his laughter at the looks on both Malfoy and Hermione's faces.

"That isn't funny Potter," Malfoy said glaring at Harry. "Wait, is that what you meant by what you said this morning Granger?" Malfoy said turning towards her with a look of enlightenment on his face.

"Very good Malfoy," she squirmed her way from beneath Ron's heavy arm and walked over to Malfoy, patting him on the shoulder with a grin plastered on her face. "So glad that you got it without me having to explain it to you," everyone looked at them in confusion but no one said anything since they were walking over to the girls who had emerged from the Gryffindor stands and headed back up towards the castle.

"We lost," Draco said sadly.

"Who? What?" Draco laughed at her.

"My team, the team that was just playing Quidditch?"

"Oh, yeah," she chuckled nervously. "Who was on your team?"

"Blaise, Ginny, and of course me," he said glancing between the people walking in front of him and Hermione.

"Why did you lose?" she asked curiously, also glancing between the people in front of them and him.

"Because you were being distracting running down there on the ground chasing that ball or whatever you do down there," she laughed at his childish excuse for losing his game.

"I'm sorry that I was distracting you," she gave him an innocent smile. "I didn't mean too."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," he said laughing at how childish their exchange seemed to be.

"They like each other," Blaise whispered to Ginny, as they continued to watch the two in front of them as they walked a few paces behind.

"You think so?" she asked thoughtfully.

"Oh yeah," he draped his arm over her shoulder and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek as the group continued their journey up towards the castle. The group split up into smaller groups, by house except for Hermione and Draco, and headed towards their separate common rooms.

"I call dibs on the shower," Hermione shouted as she started to run towards the common room.

"I don't think so," Malfoy ran to catch up with her. "How the hell do you run so fast?" he asked barely able to keep up with her once they reached the common room.

"Duh, I run a lot to keep in shape. You…" she poked her finger into his firm sweaty chest, "only fly so I am in better physical shape than you are."

"I don't think so," he wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her easily off of the ground.

"MALFOY!" she squealed. "PUT ME DOWN!"

"Not until you tell me that I am in better physical condition than you are," he said still holding her firmly against him.

"Just because you can pick me up much easier than I could pick you up does not mean that you are in better physical condition than I am," she said crossing her arms across her chest and just let her body hang from the arms of Malfoy. "It just means that you are bigger, stronger, and heavier than I am."

"Oh yeah?" Malfoy had to think about this for a minute. 'Maybe she is right. But she did say that I was stronger than her.' "But you think I am stronger than you are?"

"Probably," she said, still dangling from Malfoy's arms.

"Okay," he dropped her and began walking towards the stairs to take a shower.

"OUCH!" he turned around to find Hermione sitting on the floor and glaring at him. "That hurt jackass, and…" she waggled her finger at him, "I called dibs on the shower before you did."

"I'm sorry, are you okay?" he walked back over to her and helped her up off of the floor, but he was not about to let her have the shower first.

"I think I'm going to be okay, thank you."

"Good," he sprinted up the stairs and into the bathroom before Hermione could even realize what had just happened.

"JACKASS!" she yelled furiously and stormed over to one of the chairs, where she plopped herself down. She crossed her arms across her chest and pouted until Malfoy came out of the bathroom, fully dressed in a pair of slightly baggy blue jeans and a tight black ringer shirt with white trim, and his trusty black converse high tops.

"It's all yours Granger," Malfoy said cheerfully as he lay down on the couch and stretched himself out.

She growled something incomprehensible at him and stomped upstairs and took a shower. She grabbed her wand, placing it along her spine in the waistband of her skirt, and looked exactly as she had when she walked down the stairs earlier this morning as she entered the common room once again. Malfoy was napping on the couch, and she decided to have a little fun. Walking over to the kitchen, she grabbed a large glass from the cabinet and filled it with ice cold water. Silently creeping over to where Malfoy was sleeping, she tipped the glass over his head and fell to the ground laughing and clutching her sides as he jumped up screaming.

"WHAT IN THE HELL?" Malfoy screamed looking around for the culprit. "GRANGER!" he had just noticed the girl rolling on the floor in fits of laughter. "That was NOT funny!" he growled, but could not keep his laughter from over taking his anger and eventually fell back against the couch laughing as well.

"You…You…You…scream like a…GIRL!" Hermione burst out into another fit of laughter.

"Shut up Granger," he continued to chuckle. "It wasn't funny."

"I'm sorry…I just…I had to," she grabbed her wand and pointed it at Malfoy.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" he pushed her wand away looking terrified of the girl in front of him.

"I was going to say a drying spell, but if you would rather walk around wet, be my guest," she went to put her wand back in the waistband of her skirt.

"Wait, I…I thought you were going to do something bad to me,"

"You're a trusting one aren't you?" she mumbled the drying spell and he felt his hair and clothes become instantly dry.

"Thanks."

"No problem," she sighed and leaned her head back against the back of the couch after placing her wand on the coffee table in front of them.

"So uh…do you want to uh…?" Malfoy stuttered after a few minutes of peaceful silence. "Do you want to do that tattoo now?"

"Oh, yeah, sure…I totally forgot about that," Hermione sat up straight and glanced over at him to notice that he was looking at his hands. "Do you know what you want to have the tattoo of, and where you want it?" she was very excited to get to do this again. She loved her lion cub and was definitely excited about getting more practice on the spell. She may be more than just a bookworm, but she would still always have that little piece of her personality with her.

"Yeah," he stood up from the couch and hurried upstairs and into his room, leaving Hermione staring at his back in confusion.

**Thanks to all of my reviewers who reviewed this time and all of the times in the past, you are the BEST! Sorry if there are mistakes in this chapter. I have read it so many times and near the end, I just got tired of reading the same 12 pages over and over again!**

**Burning Lily **Sorry our schedules didn't work out in sync. Thanks so much for all of your help with previous chapters. Good Luck in school and keep writing.

**Destiny's Darkness **Sorry it took me a while to get the next couple chapters out. My beta and I had a difference of scheduling and time so things just weren't working out. But now I will update sooner, at least I will try. LOL! I am so glad that you like my story. I totally look forward to reading your reviews, they always make my day. I love you story too and I hope that you update it SOON!

**Fictiongurl **I totally think that she is more than just a bookworm. Everyone has a deeper side than what they show on the outside. Hermione probably isn't as wild and crazy as I am making her out to be, but that is the fun of writing fan fiction right?

**Angelgirl135 **I am glad that you think my story is good, but in this story she is 17 (not 10). She is in her 7th year. Sorry if I didn't make that more clear in the beginning.

**Anna-Belle Malfoyx3 **Thanks so much for the fantastic complement. That made my day. Yes Nick still does like Hermione, but she thinks that he is just torturing her. Keep enjoying.

**Hermione Charlotte Granger **LOL! I am sorry that you don't like Nick. He is kind of an ass huh? He really isn't that bad of a guy, just made some mistakes that make him think he is a bad guy. But sometimes I don't really like him either. LOL!

**Myheartyoursoul1 **I totally know what you mean. I think that Hermione and Draco falling in love instantly is not very believable. I have had such a great time taking these character's personalities and trying to find a way for them to eventually work together.

**Angel-1844 **I am so glad to hear that you like it. Don't you just have to love Hermione? I think that there is a little piece of all of us that can relate to her. I'll try to get to the good Nick and Hermione stuff SOON!

**Beautiful Enigma **YEA! It is before a month that I last updated, I'm not evil!


	13. The Tattoo

**Chapter 13- The Tattoo**

He emerged from his room, gently grasping a small square of white parchment between his thumb and the side of his right pointer finger, and he quickly descended the spiral stair case with loud thuds as his feet hit each stair. "I uh…drew this up last night after we talked about doing the tattoo thing. I couldn't sleep and well I was kind of excited to get it done," he sat back down on the couch next to her. He glanced at her as she took the drawing from his hand, expecting to see her laughing at his eagerness, but was sort of shocked to see her smiling at his drawing.

"Aww…it's so cute!" Hermione said in a tone slightly higher than normal, as she looked at the drawing of baby cartoon dragon that Malfoy had drawn.

"It's not…CUTE!" he said disgusted at the word. "It's…"

"It's cute and you know it," she interrupted his failed attempt at a revival of his masculinity. "You are a really good artist too."

"I am?" she nodded her head slightly. "Thanks."

"Do you draw often?"

"Well, sometimes when I get bored," he said. "And during class. I always draw on my notes that I take in class. I guess that goes along with being bored though, huh?"

"Really? I thought only muggles did that?"

"They do?" he was more shocked than appalled.

"Yeah, all the time. I swear that's how some of my friends back in the muggle world get to be so good. They spend all of their class time drawing rather than listening to the teacher and taking notes," she laughed. "Kind of funny actually."

"What is?"

"Just that, well I guess I never would have associated you with anything that muggles did before."

"Before now, I would have been grateful for that, but after spending a week with my cousin this summer in the muggle world, I have actually come to like a few muggle things."

"I was going to ask you about that?" she glanced at him. "I mean, it was a total surprise to me that you and Blaise have been wearing muggle clothes, I mean besides when you are wearing your school robes and all."

"Yeah, I like muggle clothes. They are so much more comfortable than those heavy robes that people in the wizarding world wear. Plus, wizards and witches don't know how to dress properly in muggle clothes. My cousin got so embarrassed by my "fashion sense" that she drug me to the mall and picked out a whole new wardrobe for me. She took me to a bunch of stores, but I really only liked shopping at Hot Topic and Old Navy I think is what they were called. She shops at so many stores I could barely keep track. Too many letters to remember. AF, AE and Merlin knows what else there was."

"I like the sound of your cousin already," she smiled brightly. "But wait, you said that your cousin lives in the muggle world? I thought that your whole family hated the muggle world and anyone or anything having to do with it?"

"Well, it's not common knowledge, but my father's little sister married a muggle when I was like three years old. She was disowned by the family. Their marriage resulted in my cousin Kelly, who is a half-blood. She goes to some wizarding school in America. It's in California, which is where she lives. I was never allowed to speak to them until my father died. I went there after my father died, because it was the only place I could think to go that was not the wizarding world where my family was falling apart."

"Oh," she was becoming more comfortable with this new Malfoy. He obviously was becoming more comfortable with her as well or he would not be opening up to her so much as he had been the past few minutes. "Well, she sounds like a fun person. Anyways, I think you look good in muggle clothes. Before just by looking at you and knowing your background status, I would have seen you as a preppy, but the "punk" look suits you."

"Thanks," he smirked at her. "I thought so too."

"There you go being so damn arrogant again," she laughed at the pout on his face, but her laughter was contagious and he soon joined in with her.

They had been laughing for a few moments, before they finally tried catching their breath. "I like your laugh," he said. 'She is so cute when she laughs, wait…she is cute with a lot of the things she does.' "It's cute," oops, he had not meant to say that last part out loud.

"Thanks," she blushed a bright pink color. Well, I guess we should get started with your tattoo before we look all time in the day," she said picking up the picture from where she had placed it on the table near the beginning of their conversation "Where do you want me to put it?

"Right here," he said taking off his shirt and pointing to his right peck.

"Okay," Hermione said, blushing again she tore her eyes away from his chest and reached for her wand. "I have to transfer the image onto your (gulp) skin and then I can make it into a tattoo. You can lie down or sit up, whichever you would rather do."

"I think I'll lie down," he said as Hermione stood up so he could lie down on the couch, and then sat back down on the edge of the couch next to him.

"Okay," she leaned over him and gently smoothed out the image on his chest next to the place where he wanted it. "It should be easier and much quicker than mine was since you have already drawn it out," she smiled and looked down at him.

He smiled back, and then folded his hands behind his head and closed his eyes, trying to relax. He listened to the sound of Hermione's voice, as she melodiously said the incantations, and gently touched his chest with the tip of her wand at the end of each one. Her voice was so relaxing, that it caused him to fall into a light, peaceful slumber.

She watched in awe as she transferred the drawing onto Malfoy's chest. When she did her own, it was so much harder to watch since she had not drawn out the image and since it sat low on her hip. She would touch the paper, say the incantation, and then touch the place on Malfoy's chest where he wanted it to be placed. It was amazing to see the lines move onto his skin, from the simplest lines to the most intrequite of details. She noticed that Malfoy had fallen asleep, by the time the whole image had been transferred. His eyes were closed and his head had fallen slightly to the left, which had made a small amount of blond hair fall into his eyes. His chest was rising and falling in a smooth, rhythmic motion. He looked peaceful, almost angelic. 'Angelic and Malfoy? Those are two words that don't really fit together,' she chuckled silently and debated whether she should wake him up. In the end, she figured that she should wake him up. She figured she should before she started the tattooing process, so as not to wake up him painfully with the spell she was about to perform.

"Malfoy," she placed her hand on his should, and gently shook him causing him to sit up very quickly and then to painfully collide their heads together.

"Sorry," he grabbed his forehead, as did she.

"It's ok," she rubbed her head. "I shouldn't have been so close when I woke you up."

"I fell asleep?"

"Yeah, and I didn't want you to wake up during the tattooing sleep since it's not really pain free. So, I thought I'd wake you up beforehand."

"Thanks," he sounded grateful, and looked down to see the picture of a small, green, baby dragon with red scales on his back. "Looks good," he said admiring her work. "I like the colors."

"I'm glad you like it," she blushed a bit. "Well, I'm going to start the spell now. Okay?" she did not leave him time to answer. "You may want to lie back down," he did as he was told, and Hermione touched her wand to the center of the drawing and began her slightly lengthy incantation.

"Shit! That hurt," he gingerly touched the flesh around his brand new tattoo. He was afraid to actually touch it, incase it would actually hurt as much as the process of putting it there.

"I told you," she laughed. "But it looks good."

"It looks awesome," he gently moved his finger over the tattoo and ran his long finger over the spine of the small dragon. The dragon gently rubbed against Draco's finger as if Draco were really petting him. Draco continued to pet the dragon, finding that he enjoyed this new tattoo. It was almost as if he were a new friend. "Does yours do that?" he asked looking at Hermione, whom had a small smile on her face as she watched Draco play with his new tattoo.

"I don't know, I guess I've never tried," before she could stop him, he had moved from petting his own tattoo, to trying to pull down the side of her skirt to check and see if hers reacted the same way. "Um…Malfoy? What are you doing?" she asked a bit nervously at the fact that he was trying to pull down her skirt.

"I want to see if yours does the same thing," he continued to try and pet the lion cub on Hermione's hip, but seemed to be failing miserably.

"Here…uh…let me help you," she gave up trying to keep him from his destination, even though she felt quite odd unbuttoning her mini-skirt and pulling down the left hand side so that he could have better access to her hip.

He reached over and began to pet her lion cub, which was curled up and looking at him shyly. Her tattoo also acted as if it were being pet, while Malfoy ran his finger over the lion's back. She was not sure if it was good or bad, when her tattoo started to move. It started to stretch out and it had a silly happy smile on its face, as Hermione began to feel more immune to Malfoy's touch. She had never seen her tattoo react this way before. It was the only one that she did not use a concealment charm on, besides when she had put it into a position to be seen, especially when she was in the muggle world. She had only looked down and saw that it was in a different position; she had never actually watched her tattoo move. She had no idea that it could do so. She found it fascinating that it could move and the affect Malfoy seemed to have upon it, and her.

"Hey, um…Malfoy?" Hermione asked nervously.

"Yeah?" he lazily pulled his finger away and she buttoned her skirt back up and sat on the coffee table next to the couch.

"Why have you been so different to me in the past month?" she suddenly found her fingers very interesting. "I mean, I know that we haven't talked a whole lot besides last night and this morning, but during classes and everything. You just seem so different. And you have been hanging out with Harry and Ron. I mean, it's just so different from that, well…incident."

"Oh, yeah," he also found her fingers very interesting. He turned on his side, and propped himself up onto his right elbow, and watched as she fiddled with her fingers. "Well, first of all, I am really sorry about the things I said to you that night. I was angry at myself and I let myself take it out on you. I know that there isn't any excuse for the things that I said, but I just wasn't thinking about the fact that it would hurt you so badly," he looked up into her eyes which were staring at him widely. "That's a lit. I did want to hurt you, but only to make myself feel better. I failed and made myself feel worse though. I shouldn't have done what I did. You were already in such a bad state with Nick and all and with me kissing you and everything, I just pushed you into a worse state and I was angry at myself for kissing you. I know that I should have told you this earlier, I mean I tried to but you were so angry at my, and I was afraid of what you would do. Well, that situation and the things that you said to me, made me think. It made me realize that I was still being someone that I didn't want to be. I was still being like my father. I was still holding onto old prejudices and my old ways of thinking, so I pushed those aside after what you said to me. I started hanging out with your friends more, which believe me was a giant step in itself, and I figured that when our time came around again, I wouldn't let it pass me by this time. I would try to gain your trust and try to become your friend," They were starting at each other, but she had yet to say anything, or even smile.

Suddenly he felt the warmth of her hand , almost burning his skin, and he looked down to see that she had placed her hand upon his and when he looked back up into her face a sweet smile had spread across her lips. "I'm glad," was all she said and there was a silent exchange of confirmation between them that things would be okay from now on.

**Hello out there! Well, another chapter down. I am going to have to get working. That's the end of my prewritten chapters and my time seems to be disappearing quickly. Don't worry I will still keep this story, I will just have to squeeze in some time to work on it. Sorry it's been a while. I just moved and had no computer for a few days, I started school, and my boss has me working a crazy busy schedule! But I love writing this story and am having a great time writing it so I will keep working at it. Thanks so much for all of the reviews. Sorry this chapter is a little short, but hopefully the next one will be better. Thanks for reading!**

**Hermione Charlotte Granger- definitely, but aren't most boys like that? Lol**

**Mysteriouscharm- they are…when will they finally realize that they like each other and just get it over with? Oh wait, that is for me to decide huh? I guess I'll have to get right on that!**

**Myheartyoursoul1- that was a great scene in the shower huh? I thought that I should make it humorous and add in that he actually was paying attention to every little detail about the things she said during the game last night. About the promise that he was going to make. It was more along the lines that he was going to promise not to tell anyone about her "secret life" or whatever you want to call it. And it also kind of fit in with the conversation that he had with Blaise, with him being nice to her. More just following along with the conversation he had with Blaise about being nice and by being nice he wouldn't go spreading stuff about her.**

**Stokes'sGirl- Did the tattoo work out to your liking? I know it is totally typical that I picked a dragon, but I couldn't really think of another animal that he would want to tattoo onto his body. **

**Destiny's Darkness- Sorry I didn't keep up with the chapter a day thing! Lol! I swear life just gets in the way all of the time doesn't it? LOL! That would have been great if I would have chosen a ferret, but I decided to be typical and go with the dragon to make it seem more "in character" or whatever! Glad that you are enjoying the story. Where's the next chapter of YOUR story? I looking forward to reading it!**

**Angel-1844- What can I say…I try. Just kidding, I wanted to get it out before moving and school and I am glad that everyone liked it! YEA! I love Draco and Hermione. Probably because it is a paring that it totally out there and J.K. Rowling would never put into her story. But I think that they are cute and they are so much fun to write about. **

**Beautiful Enigma- Sorry…I'm falling farther behind now. I'll try to keep it up but sometimes those promises are hard to make and keep! I love the smurfs! Well, at least I used to when I was a kid, too bad they aren't on TV anymore. And yes, it is creepy that there is only one girl.**

**DragonGirl81- I'm brilliant? Wow! Thank you! I feel so loved! I am glad that you like the story. **

**Until next time guys!**

**Carin**


	14. Meeting Your Fate

**Chapter 14- Meeting Your Fate**

'Ba-boom, ba-boom, ba-boom,' the blood pounded in his ears. He used the pads of his long, thing, fore and middle fingers, to put pressure on his temples and rub them in a slow, circular motion. 'Ba-boom, ba-boom, ba-boom,' no avail, the massaging of his temples did nothing but cause him to concentrate on the repetitive motion, rather than the thoughts that cause his raging migraine in the first place.

Thoughts of her always made his head pound, meaning that migraines were a constant in his life. She was around all of the time, not that he was friends with the people she hung around with. He could not get away from her. She was intoxicating. Her smell, her looks, her smile, her laughter, she had changed so much, but she was still the same girl that he had always known at the same time. He had never seen this side of her before, but he liked it. Being around her made him feel like he had just ridden on that awful carnival ride The Gravitron. He felt like the bottom had dropped out of his world, but it was spinning so fast that he could not move a muscle to get away. The feeling, surprisingly, was not as bad as it sounded, he loved being around her, despite the dull ache she left in his heart when she was not around.

She had been flashing through hi mind when his headache came about, the constant pounding only getting worse as his thoughts became more present. Some thoughts were bad, and some were good, but they all left him aching. The good left his heart to ache, but the bad left him in the sat he was now currently in. At the moment, he was remembering the way she had been hanging out with "him" lately.

'I thought that she hated him,' he thought bitterly. 'I'll never be able to have her if she keeps hanging out with him.'

He was sitting in the dark, empty common room, only to be kept company by the random cracks from the slowly dying fire before him. He sat on the ends of a large cushy chair, leaned his upper back upon the back of the chair, and had his fingers intertwined behind his head. He stared at the fire, watching as the small orange flames danced and licked the sides of the logs. It was beautiful to watch. The flames were free to move as they pleased, and were not afraid that they would be ridiculed for doing so. E wished that he could be like that. Free from prejudices, other people's thoughts, and free to do as he pleased, and not to be ridiculed for being open about whom he really was. That however was not the case. There were always people's thoughts to be considered, he did not have to consider them, but he did. Everyone cares about what other people think, everyone is looking for some sort of recognition, but they also usually try to avoid people's thoughts that are bad.

Why did he do this to himself? He had gotten himself into a very large rut, and it was slowly eating away at him. The one person he wanted and needed to tell, he just could not bring himself to do it. She would hate him. They were just starting to build up a new relationship, and as soon as she was to find out, any chance of them being friend would be ruined. He did not want to take that chance. How could he tell her? He was being heartless either way, but which was would break her more? It he told her, her heart would break into a thousand more pieces than it already had, it would probably destroy her. On the other hand, if he were to never tell her, her heart would break apart each and every time she saw him. She would never be able to trust him with either choice he made. He needed to tell her, he wanted to tell her, but every time he saw her, he just could not being himself to do it. He tired to keep his mind off of her. He thought about talking to one of his friends, he thought about the up coming weekend, he even thought about homework, but each and every though, came back to her.

It was Friday night and there was no one around, but it was not that late. He supposed that people must be out partying and with their significant others, or they were around doing homework somewhere other than where he was. He had been left here, as if he had been forgotten. He had been left here, alone, to wait for his fate.

OOO

He ran his long, boney fingers through his shoulder length, greasy, black hair, as he paced around his office, leaving a pool of black robes to float along behind him. Snape had been doing this all evening, well, ever since he had left the great hall after dinner. He was nervous and he was not sure why. Actually, he knew exactly why he was nervous, the feeling just did not come to him often. He was going to visit his sister in few minutes, and he was NOT looking forward to it.

It had been thirteen years since he had seen his sister Sienna, his niece Casey, and his brother in-law David. It had been since the death of his parents, since the funeral that was the last time he had seen the rest of his living family. Severus was not one to be sad or nervous, but thinking about his family made him do crazy things. He figured that they would have nothing to talk about. He thought that maybe there would be hostility between them, seeing as they had not contacted each other in a very long time. She had stopped trying to contact him over the past few years, seeing as he had not made any effort to return her gestures. He could just never bring himself to do it, it hurt too much to remember the past and he didn't want to even try, that was why he had not contacted her and he wished that he never would have had to. Thirteen years was a long time. It was an especially long time when you had to face a situation that you hoped never to have to.

He decided that it was time to face the situation, and with in a flurry of black robes, Severus was out of his office and making his way across the castle in a hurry, with a stern but determined look on his face.

OOO

He sat in the chair, continuing to stare into the fire, which was giving off a warm glow now. There were no flames, but it looked as if the log were glowing a deep orange color, it was a bit eerie. The room was still deserted, and that left him with the repetitive sound of 'ba-boom, ba-boom, ba-boom,' his administrations had failed and his headache was still very much pounding away in his brain, he was afraid that it would never go away. He barely noticed the knocking at the portrait door, seeing as his head was making the same noises. He stood up at the same time a man burst into the common room. He could not make out the features of the man, but he knew who he was. It was time. It was time to meet his fate.

"We are going to be late if you keep standing there staring at me like that Mr. Cook," Snape turned and walked out of the Gryffindor common room with Nick tagging along close behind.

**I am so sorry I haven't updated in a while. I have been so busy and I have had this terrible case of writer's block. There are so many things that I want to have happen in this story but they all seem to be coming too quickly and I don't think it would make the story flow right. Anyways that is why I put this chapter in here. But yeah, question for you all…do you want me to write more about what Snape and Nick do in the next chapter? I don't know if you all caught on about what is happening I tried to give clues but if it didn't make sense just let me know. Well, I hope that you liked this chapter. I am sorry that it is SO short. I will try and write more for the next chapter. Oh and for "the-gurl-who-lived" you never left an e-mail address, but sure you can use a character like Nick. I feel so special that you want to use part of my story. Thanks for asking, that was really nice of you. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed and please review and let me know what you think I should talk about for the next chapter, I look forward to hearing what you all think. Until next time…Adios.**


	15. Fall Away

Ch. 15 Fall Away

Nick followed closely behind Snape, afraid to fall behind. He was nervous. How did he get himself into this situation anyways? Oh, that's right! He thought with his dick rather than with his brain. He had not seen Casey since the day before his family left Hawaii. He did not know if he could handle this. He did not lover her, but it was his responsibility to take care of her. It was, after all, his fault that Casey was pregnant, and it was not like Hermione would ever take him back after should found out that he had not only cheated on her with a much younger girl, but he also got her pregnant. Why oh why does the male libido have so much control over guys' actions? See, his thoughts always ended up on Hermione, it did not matter where his thoughts drifted they always ended up back on her. Songs always came to his mind that reminded him of her. She followed him everywhere, even though he tried to keep her away from his mind, it never worked.

_You swear you recall nothing at all,  
That could make you come back down.  
You made up your mind to leave it all behind,  
Now you're forced to fight it out. _

You fall away from your past,  
But it's following you.

Absent mindedly, Nick tugged at the bottom of his shirt as if it kept riding up, even though it was not. He looked as if he had fallen directly out of an Abercrombie and Fitch catalog. He was wearing a pair of light blue, faded jeans, a light weight, green, long sleeved, button down shirt, and a pair of authentic black Birkenstock sandals. The few girls that walked past the pair that evening, stole two or three glances at Nick, with out him noticing of course, and they giggled uncontrollably which was not an uncommon occurrence for Nick. It happened so often, that he barely even noticed it anymore. He did not enjoy the attention, well he used to before Hermione came around, but after her finally got together with her the other girls did not matter anymore. He had pined for her for so long, that once his dream came true, he had no reason to want anything else. Well, except to have her. You know, to "have" her in that way. Ok, he wanted to have sex with her, he wanted them to be one, he wanted to be the only one that she would ever be with. He had said it many times, and he will say it many times again, he royally screwed up and he will never get back to the place where he was, especially with her. He needed to start fresh. He may not love Casey, but he would at least need to tolerate her, especially since he was going to have to spend the rest of his life with her, and their child.

_You left something undone, it's now your rerun,  
It's the one you can't erase.  
You should have made it right, so you wouldn't have to fight,  
To put a smile back on your face._

"Watch where you are walking Mr. Cook," he had become lost in his thoughts again, and had not realized that they had reached Dumbledore's office until he had run directly into Snape's back. "I am not thrilled about making this trip, and having you run into me because you do not have enough common courtesy to pay attention to where you are walking makes me even more thrilled about bringing you with me," Snape said in a dull, flat tone without even turning around to look at Nick as he spoke to him.

"Sorry Sir," Nick kept his head down and tried not to get lost in his thoughts again. Snape already did not think the best of him, seeing as he had gotten his newly 15 year old niece pregnant, but things could definitely be worse, and that was something that he did not want to happen.

"Severus, Mr. Cook, so good to see you both. I suppose you are ready to leave then?" without even realizing it, Nick had followed Snape into the Head Master's office and was not standing in front of his desk, which Dumbledore was seated behind peering at them over the top of his half moon spectacles with a sparkle in his eye.

'Man, I really need to stop thinking and pay attention when I am walking,' Nick thought to himself.

"The Floo network has been connected to my fireplace for the evening. All you need to say is, 'Armiston Residence'," Dumbledore looked directly at Nick, seeing as he knew that Snape already knew this bit of information.

"Thank you Albus," Snape walked over to the fireplace, not letting his nervousness show, and threw a glance at Nick. "We shall return in a short while."

"Take your time Severus. I will be here making sure that no one besides the two of you are coming or going through this fireplace, when you return," Dumbledore knew Snape was not looking forward to this trip, but he also knew it would be good for him to see his sister again.

"Thank you Professor," Nick flashed the Head Master a shy smile, and walked over to where Snape was throwing a handful of powder into the fireplace and mumbling something incompressible.

"Armiston Residence," he shouted and was gone in a swirl of green flames. Nick repeated Snape's actions, and as soon as he had said the words, Professor Dumbledore's office had disappeared. He seemed to be flying quickly past fireplaces in the green flames, until he painfully landed on a hard wood floor in a place he barely got a chance to look at.

"NICK!" he was forcefully pulled to his feet the instant he had hit the ground. "I missed you SO much!" a shrill voice screamed as he was pulled into a bone crushing hug before he could see his attacker. He did not need to see her to know who she was though.

"Hi Casey," he hugged her back, but with much less enthusiasm. She finally released him from her death grip around his rib cage, but still kept herself attached to his hip. Casey was a cute girl, she was not drop dead gorgeous, but she was not unfortunate looking. She was a pretty normal fifteen year old girl, besides the fact that she had a baby growing inside of her. She stood at five feet, five inches tall, and had a very slim waist, well, besides her growing belly that contained his child. She had straight black hair that fell to the middle of her back, and she had deep purple eyes, they were beautiful and captivating. Tonight, she was wearing a knee length, black, slinky skirt, a baby pink, silky, sleeveless, dress shirt, and a pair of three inch, square heeled, black sandals. She was the spitting image of her mother, but received her height and slim waist from her father. Sienna, Mrs. Armiston, was a short, stout woman with waist length, straight, black hair, and was wearing purple dress robes that matched her eye color perfectly. David, Mr. Armiston, was about six feet tall, about the same height as Nick; he had green eyes, and had short, slightly curly, light brown hair. He was wearing a blue, button down, long sleeved, dress shirt and black slacks. He was well put together and a high class business man. David reminded Nick of his father. "Mr. Armiston," he firmly shook David's hand. "Mrs. Armiston," he stuck out his hand to shake hers, but instead he was pulled into a hug by Sienna.

"Oh Nick, it is so good to see you again," Sienna smiled sweetly at the boy as she help him by the shoulders at arms length. She was no surveying him to see if he had changed at all since they had last seen him. "And please, call us Sienna and David. No need for formalities here. We are all practically family aren't we?"

"Yes Sienna," Nick grimaced at the reference of being a family. 'I am way too young to become a son in-law. This is all happening WAY to fast!' he thought to himself.

"Have a seat everyone, make yourselves comfortable," Sienna shooed everyone towards the elegant, red leather furniture on the other side of the room. "I will have desert served in just a moment," she was a homemaker, and did not like to have house elves do what she could do.

'Hermione would love this woman,' Nick thought to himself with a silent chuckle.

Snape and David had settled themselves into the red leather arm chairs, and Casey had sat down practically on top of Nick as he sat on the edge of the long, red, leather couch. David had engaged Snape into a discussion about work, with Snape giving off the feeling of awkwardness. Nick watched the two men as they increasingly grew more comfortable with each other.

"I've missed you," a husky voice whispered in his ear, ripping him from the intriguing sight of the two men before him. Casey was running the tip of her manicured right pointer finger up and down along the top of his thigh.

"I, um, I missed you too," he lied, but looked her in the eye and smile sweetly. "How are you, um, feeling?" he glanced down at her belly, and then back up into her eyes with a curious expression.

"I'm fine, nothing too much has happened yet. I only feel like I'm getting fat," she lightly ran a hand over her stomach and gave him a disgusted face. She was obviously not thrilled about loosing her figure.

"How is Hogwarts treating you Nick? Is my brother here taking good care of you?" Sienna had returned from the kitchen, and had handed a small plate of chocolate cake to each person before she sat on the couch beside Casey and began to eat her own cake. "Are you making new friends?"

_You fall away from your past,  
but it's following you.  
You fall away._

"Hogwarts is a very nice school. I am enjoying my classes, and yes I have made many new friends," Hermione's picture continued to flash through his mind.

"Have you met Harry Potter?" Sienna asked curiously, as Snape scowled in the background.

"Yes ma'am. I have actually become close friends with him and his other friends," he wanted to be back there with them right now. He wanted to see them and hear them, and not be here in this situation. He liked these people, they were very nice, but there was nothing like being in the comfortable presence of your friends.

"Oh it sounds like you are having a wonderful time. Casey misses being at Durmstrang, but her tutor is accelerating her quickly. After you have finished with school, she will continue with the tutor until she has the equivalent of finishing her seventh year," the marriage conversation was rapidly approaching, and Nick was becoming very uncomfortable with the situation. "After the baby is born in March, I will help Casey with her, until you are finished with school. We have already started preparing where the two of you will live, it is right next door so we can help you with anything you need. We are so looking forward to you two marrying at Christmas."

_Something I've done that I can't outrun.  
Maybe you should wait maybe you should run,  
But there's something you've said that can't be undone._

Talk about weddings, babies, and houses continued for a long while. Snape and Sienna had caught up on old times, and had promised to keep in touch better than they had for the past thirteen years, and if it were possible, Casey became more attached to Nick than before.

"Mr. Cook, it is getting late, we should be going," Snape stood up from his seat and stretched slightly.

"Yes Sir," both Snape and Nick said their goodbyes but as Snape was ready to throw the Floo power into the fireplace, Casey was having a hard time letting go of the death grip she had around Nick's waist.

"I love you," she cried as Nick finally stepped into the fire place and was gone in a swirl of green flames.

"Did you have a nice time Mr. Cook?" Dumbledore enquired as soon as nick had hit the floor.

"Yes sir," he nodded and yawned slightly.

"Well, it seems as if the trip tired you out. Why don't you make your way back to your common room? There are still a few more minutes before curfew. Have a good night Mr. Cook," Dumbledore nodded his head towards the door and smiled at the boy.

"Thank you sir. Goodnight Professors," Nick left Snape to talk to Dumbledore, and made his way back to the Gryffindor common room."

The castle was deserted. Nick's sandals made a hollow clicking noise as he walked through the empty hall ways. Not a single person was walking around the halls, and as he reached the common room, only a few seventh years were sitting around, practically asleep as they did so. It was late, so all of his friends had most likely gone to bed, leaving him to make the same decision. He slowly climbed the staircase to the seventh year boys' dormitory, and quietly opened the door sneaking through the small space and shutting the door behind him. The room was dark, but it was easy for him to get to bed since his was the first one on the right. He quietly shuffled across the floor and plopped himself onto his bed face down. As soon as his head hit the pillow, he was a sleep. He did this with out even changing out of his clothes, and without pulling the curtains around his four poster. That night, Nick was consumed with dreams about Hermione, and her being the one that he would spend the rest of his life with.

_And you fall away from your past,  
But it's following you._

OOO

"Hasn't Hermione been looking frantically for him all night?" Lavender mumbled against Ron's bare chest as they lay tangled in each other's arms. "I wonder where he's been," The two finally fell asleep together, seeing as their previous activities had worn them both out.

_You fall away.  
It's following you.  
_

**I know, it's short again, choppy, and it's kinda crappy. Oh, and I didn't reread it after I had completely finished it so forgive me for typos. I don't know if I really like this chapter, but I felt that I needed to put it in. I am sorry that the last chapter confused almost everyone. I was trying to be sneaky, but I guess sneaky was not the best way to write. Only a couple people got it, and only one who said what they thought was right. Snape and Nick are not related, that would be no fun. Sorry about it being an all Nick and Snape chapter again, but I felt like I needed to explain myself. I promise to bring Hermione and Draco back in the next chapter. Oh, the name "Fall Away" of the chapter really has nothing to do with it except it is the title of the song "Fall Away" by The Fray. (Everyone should check out the Fray. They are an awesome band from Denver, CO, which is where I live.) They are my favorite band right now, and you will probably be seeing a lot of their songs coming soon. ) Well, that's all. I think that pretty much satisfies everyone's individual reviews because you all said the same thing. LOL! Thanks so much for reviewing, I love checking my e-mail and seeing reviews, it makes me SO happy! So please keep doing it! Oh, but WonWon-7, sorry I annoyed you by saying drug instead of dragged. Yes I do know that it is dragged and not drug. I don't even remember writing drug but thanks for the info. I'll try to pay more attention. I just type really fast and sometimes write like I speak instead of proper English. Here is quote for you guys. "No language is ever WRONG, it is only inappropriate at certain times." My grammar professor told us that and I thought I would share it with you since you are a writing/reading community. Thanks for reading again. I hope this chapter helped clear things up. Let me know. Adios. **


	16. Coming to Terms with the Past

**Chapter 16 – Coming to Terms with the Past**

"NICK!" Hermione's voice echoed down the empty hallway and boomed in his ears. "NICK!"

"Hey Mione," Nick turned around as Hermione came to a skidding halt in front of him. "What's up?" he looked at her red face worriedly. She was hunched over, with her hands on her knees, and her breath was ragged. It seemed as if she had been running from all over the school to find him. "Are you ok Mione?"

"Sure…just…catching….my breath," she squeezed out in between huge deep breaths. "We…need…to talk. Where…were you…yesterday? I looked…everywhere."

"It's no big deal, just with Professor Snape. We were working on potions and stuff," he lied through his teeth and put his arm around her shoulder as she stood up straight, and then he led her over to the staircase and sat them both down. Tears slowly began to slide down her cheeks, and she leaned her head on Nick's shoulder, while he pulled her closer to him. "What happened? Please tell me Mione, don't cry," she began to sob, and her body began to convulse wildly. "Shhhhhh…it's going to be ok Mione, just talk to me," he was rapidly becoming concerned. 'What happened? She is never like this,' he thought to himself with concern.

"My parents," she began, "accident," she continued to speak through sobs.

"Oh my God Hermione," he never called her Hermione, unless he was truly worried about her, "are they ok?" she just shook her head. His heart sank. No. No, that was her answer, and then she began to sob even harder. He hated to see her like this. "I'm…I'm so sorry," he pulled her in close and hugged her tightly, as she continued to sob.

"Why?" she wailed into his chest. They were her parents. Why did they need to be taken away from her now? Why now, before she even got to say goodbye? Why would they be taken from her in such a painful manner? What if they would have gotten into the car, and left just a few minutes later. God why did they have to be so early to everywhere they were going? A visual of what happened to them ran through her mind, and it just would not seem to let disappear. It just kept getting harder and harder, to visualize the most painful thing she could have ever expected to have happen to her. She squeezed her eyes even tighter, as another visualization of the car accident rolled behind her eyes.

_Her parents stepped into the car, mum dressed in a long, beautiful, black dress, and her dad dressed in his black tux, both of which only came out of the closet for special occasions. Dad turned the ignition, and the car started to purr perfectly. He slowly backed down the driveway, and then drove down the street in the direction of the benefit. As they drove down the road, a car came speeding down the wrong side of the road and collided head first with her parent's car, leaving her parents in a tangled mess of metal. _

It was awful, and she just could not think about it anymore. The picture was killing her, slowly and painfully.

"I'm so sorry," he kept repeating over and over, while rocking back and fourth in a soothing motion. He was not quite sure what to do. He rarely saw her like this, and the last time it happened, he was his fault. She finally pulled herself out of his grasp, and looked at his with red, puffy eyes. She was still beautiful, no matter how much of a mess she was. He used the pads of his thumbs to wipe away her tears, and that was when she leaned in a kissed him soundly on the lips. He was shocked at first, but then he got past the shock, and enjoyed the fact that this was what he had missed the most. He had desperately missed holding Hermione in his arms, kissing her and just being with her. He was so caught up in the memories they had shared, that he did not realize that Hermione had pulled away and was reprimanding herself for kissing him.

"What am I doing? What in the world is wrong with me?" she had stood up and was walking up the stairs, walking away from him once again.

"Mione, wait," he stood up and ran up the stairs after her. "Where are you going?" he grabbed her shoulders and turned her around to look at him.

"I'm so sorry Nick. That was so uncalled for. I wasn't thinking and just acted."

"No, it was…" he struggled with what to say. He wanted to tell her the truth, but he was afraid that she would not feel the same way. He had struggled with being around her this past few months. It made him uncomfortable to think of all of the awful things that she wished to do to him since he had hurt her so badly. He just wanted to hold her in his arms and take all of her pain away. All of the pain that he had caused her, and the pain that was caused by the death of her parents, "fine," he just could not do it. "It is fine. No need to worry about it. No need to let this get in the way of us being friends. You know that you can talk to me anytime right? I am always here for you, remember that." He could never be with her again. He looked down, and noticed that she was wearing the silver tear drop necklace that he had given to her for their one year anniversary. He slowly reached out and lifted the pendent away from the tan skin of her chest, and rolled the smooth metal between his thumb and pointer finger. "You still wear this?" he looked at her incredulously.

"I put it on last night. It was hidden away in the bottom of my jewelry box," she looked sadly into his piercing blue eyes. "I mean, it's not that I don't like it, it just that…"

"You don't have to explain, I completely understand. I mean I don't blame you for not wearing it," he paused for a moment still fingering the necklace, but he let his head drop down, and he stared at the floor, afraid to look at her. "I'm sorry Hermione. It was so awful what I did to you. I am really truly sorry. The memory of what I did haunts me every time I see you. I'm also sorry that I never told you that I would be coming to Hogwarts this year. I should have told you as soon as I found out, though you never really did give me a chance to explain that night about anything."

'What in the hell is he talking about? I can't believe that he expected me to give him a chance to explain his reasoning for cheating on me that night! I CAN'T TAKE THIS!' she just stared at him incredulously, before she spoke forcefully. "You expected me to give you a chance to explain your reasoning for cheating on me? Are you completely mad?" she pushed his hand away from her necklace and yelled at him with a shaky voice. She was about to burst out into tears again, but she stopped herself before she did.

"No, Mione that is not it at all," he put his hand softly on her shoulders, but she did not push him away as he had suspected. "What I did was a mistake, and it changed my entire life and took you away from me. I'm sorry for what I did, but I can't change the fact that I got drunk and slept with some girl that just happened to have gotten pregnant!" he spoke to her a bit more forcefully that he would have liked to, but she needed to know. Her mouth dropped as he spoke, and her eyes opened wide. She was in complete shock. "Mione please say something."

"That is why you dumped me?" she still could not completely comprehend what was he was saying. "You dumped me because you got some girl…pregnant, on accident?"

"Yeah," he looked down at his feet. He personally would not have used the word dumped, but this was no time to argue with the girl. He was so ashamed at what he had done, it was horrible, and he knew it. "I'm sorry Mione. I really truly am sorry," he removed his hands and dropped them to his sides. He looked up slowly into the Hermione's soft brown eyes, as soon as he felt the soft skin of her hands squeeze his hands slightly.

"It's ok Nick," she smiled at him slightly, "it's ok."

"It's not ok. I should have told you this months ago. I can't believe what a jerk I was. I am so sorry. I understand if you never want to talk to me again. I am sorry for dancing around this issue every time you asked me to talk to you about it. I could barely come to terms with it myself, how could I have told you about it when I couldn't even handle the fact that I had done something so wrong," she did not speak. 'Why did I even tell her? I just screwed up any chance that I even had of being friends with her. I am so stupid.'

'"Thank you for telling me. I appreciate it," she smiled at him sweetly.

"Don't cry Mione," he wiped away the stray tear with his thumb, and pulled her into a strong embrace. "Please don't cry."

"I'm not sad," she whispered and wrapped her arms around his chest. "I'm just happy that I can finally forgive you, and let all of my hostility towards you go."

They pulled away from each other and looked up at the crowd of people standing at the top of the stairs, when they heard a coughing noise in the distance. Harry, Parvati, Ron, Lavender, Ginny, Blaise, and Draco stood at the top of the stairs, looking incredulously at the couple.

"Hey guys," Hermione smiled at group, Nick following suit with a lopsided smile, showing his uncomfortableness of the situation that he had just put himself into. "How long have you been standing there?"

"When were you going to share with us that you and Nick dated?" Ron asked, more from shock than anger.

"Yeah," Ginny said firmly. "This is something that you should have shared with us. I mean we are your friends right?"

"I'm sorry that I never told you guys about us. I didn't want to talk about it, plus there would not have been much to say since I just found out the full story just a few moments ago," she smiled at her own joke, and received a small chuckle from Nick, though no one else found it very funny.

"Well I on the other hand, am quite glad that you finally settled this, and that everyone else is now knowledgeable about the situation, because it was beginning to eat away at me," Draco walked towards the couple, and put his arms around the two of them and led them up the stairs towards the rest of the group.

"MALFOY KNEW!" Ron yelled, causing the rest of the group to take a step back.

"He sort of overheard a conversation between Nick and me at the beginning of the year," the anger on Ron's face did not seem to disappear. "RONALD! IT ISN'T AS IF I PURPOSELY TOLD HIM AND NOT YOU GUYS!" she yelled, and Ron's face changed from anger to a small pout. "Oh stop it Ronald," she punched him in the arm. "Malfoy, why did you have to go open your mouth?"

"Sorry," he raised his hands in innocence, and then walked away from the group and into the Great Hall, followed by Harry, Parvati, Ron, Lavender, Ginny, and Blaise.

"Are you ok Mione?" Nick turned to her, placing his hands on her shoulders. "I know you came to talk to me about your parents, and I totally turned it around on me. I can't believe that I did that, I'm sorry, what a horrible friend I am."

"No," her smile dropped into a sad look, and he pulled her to him once again. "You took my mind off of the situation for a little while. You also brought me to terms with another situation that was sitting heavily on my heart," a few tears rolled down her cheeks, as the vision of her parents' car accident returned to her mind again. She watched as the blue truck smashed head first into her parents' car, taking them away from her, forever.

He hugged her tightly, and rubbed his hands up and down her back in a slow and soothing manner. He couldn't believe that her family was taken away from her. She was too young to have this happen to her, how was she going to handle this all on her own? Why did they have to be taken away from her? He slowly pulled away from her, and held her at an arms length while she looked down at her feet, her tears making a pattern on her pink converse lows. He hated to see such a beautiful girl, be so sad.

"Is everything ok?" Draco walked up to the two. "What happened? Did you hurt her?" his face started to change to anger.

"No, of course not. She got some information this morning that upset her," Nick took a step away from Hermione, as Draco stepped closer.

"What happened?" his face softened a bit and he took a step closer to Hermione.

"I don't know if I…"

"My parents died in a car accident last night," she would not look up from her shoes.

"Hermione, I'm so sorry," he put his arms around her and embraced her tightly, as she sobbed into his chest.

"Take good care of her," Nick smiled slightly, and placed his hand on Draco's shoulder, "please."

**Hey everyone! I am SO SO SO SO SO SO sorry that I have not updated in FOREVER! I have been incredibly busy with school and moving that I just have not had time to sit down and type out all of my ideas. Anyways, I hope that you enjoy this chapter, and I promise that another one will come soon. I swear, because I just have to put a few touches on it and then I will post it, probably by the end of the week or at least by the weekend. I hope that this is satisfying to you all and once again I am SO sorry that it took me so long. Bare with me! **

**Thanks for reading,**

**GCGurl21**


	17. Why Can't Things Go Back

**Chapter 17 – Why Can't Things Go Back to the Way They Were?**

'Now what am I supposed to do?' Draco's mind began to search frantically for a memory of the last time this sort of thing had happened to him. Nothing came to him, nothing. They had been standing here for about five minutes so far, and he saw no signs of the crying girl in his arms, stopping any time soon. 'Girls don't just cry on my shoulder. I am usually the one who makes them cry,' that thought did not make him feel good, it actually made him feel worse about the fact that he had never had this happen to him before. 'That's better Draco, much better.' He continued to hold her tightly to his chest, and rubbed his hands up and down her spine in attempts to sooth her trembling body. "Hermione, are you going to be alright?" no answer. "Sorry, stupid question seeing as your parents are now gone. Wow, how much more inconsiderate could I make this question?" he did not believe that she was actually listening to him, especially since he was mainly just rambling at the moment.

"Draco," she hiccupped as she tired to stop her crying, "please…shut up…unless…you are…trying to…make…it worse," she pulled herself away from his grasp, and looked into his eyes sadly.

'She's serious. Speak Draco Speak,' he commanded himself like a master would his dog, 'Come on Draco, this is your chance, DON'T BLOW IT!' his mind screamed at him. "I'm sorry," like she had not heard that enough today. "I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to make you feel worse, I was just trying to make sure that you were ok. I mean, I'm sorry."

"It's ok," she tried to force a smile, but it mostly came out as a pained look. "I understand…that this doesn't…happen to you…very often."

"No, but I want you to know that I am here if you need me, I really am, I promise," he smiled at her, and put his hands on her shoulders. "That is what friends do isn't it?

"Yes, I guess they do. Thank you Draco, you really are a good friend," she gave him a hug around his abdomen, but let go fairly quickly, pulling herself almost out of his reach.

"You're welcome," he noticed she was a bit uncomfortable, so he tried to change the subject as quickly as possible so she would not cry again. "Are you hungry or anything? Do you want to go to lunch, before it's over?"

"Ok," she said quietly, and dropped her head to look down at her feet, willing herself not to cry again. She was not sure if she had anymore tears to cry, but it felt as if another wave was coming on. She felt the slightest pressure on the small of her back, and realized that he was trying to lead her into the great hall for lunch. She started out slowly, and in almost no time it seemed as if they were in a crowd of people. It was completely overwhelming.

Nobody noticed that anything was different; they just kept eating and talking to their friends, never looking up from their own personal problems to notice the world around them. He led her through the maze of students, and over to her friends at the Gryffindor table. He left her there between Ginny and Harry, and slowly walked over to Slytherin table and sat next to Blaise.

OOO

They tried not to upset her, but nothing seemed to come out right. Silent tears kept running down Hermione's cheeks, and that upset her friends. There was nothing that they could do. Even "I'm sorry" set her off again. No one seemed to be able to comfort her, since Draco had left her at the Gryffindor table in the great hall, between Harry and Ginny. They thought she had said that she was not upset about Nick and that other girl, so why was she still crying so much? She would not eat anything; she just sat in front of an empty plate, and a full cup of pumpkin juice. She would not talk to any of her friends throughout lunch, and that worried them. Not like she was always talkative during meals, but she usually had at least something to say.

Since everything seemed to set off another set of waterworks from the girl, everyone sat silently, glancing at her every once in a while. Ron was still angry that Malfoy knew before they did, so he just ignored her completely. Lavender and Parvati wanted to ask her questions about her romance with Nick, but they held their tongues in an attempt to be kind to the poor crying girl. Ginny and Harry were still trying to take it all in. They had so many questions, that they thought they would bust, but they thought better of asking her things that may make her even more upset. She was their best friend. Why would she keep something like this from them?

'Why would she keep such a major part in her life from us?' Ginny thought to herself. 'I mean not everyone would think that a boyfriend is such a major part of your life, but this situation definitely makes it a big deal. I mean, we all thought that they would be perfect together and she kept blowing us off about it. THEN…we come to find out that our ideal situation has already happened, but not only that it was a situation gone badly,' she was not really sure if she was mad, hurt, or just confused as to why Hermione would hide this about herself. 'I just wish she would have told us. She really isn't the same girl that I always thought she was,' she silently huffed, and continued to slowly eat her food.

Finally she decided to leave, without a word to any of her friends, and shuffled her feet towards the heads' common room. Harry, Ginny, Lavender, Parvati, and Ron just stared at her back until the door to the great hall closed, and she disappeared from view.

OOO

Blaise kept a close eye on him throughout all of lunch. He had gone from happy when they all found out about Hermione and Nick, and then after he walked back into the great hall with Hermione, his whole demeanor changed to a sad and solemn. He did not especially enjoy this Draco. He was a bit boring, if you know what I mean. He just sat there with his chin resting heavily on the palm of his right hand, and he stared across the great hall with a sad, solemn look. Though he was a bit boring and uneventful today, it was sort of amusing when he started eating and his food kept falling off of his fork and it kept getting a forkful of nothing, since he was not paying attention, and then he ended up stabbing himself in the lip. Blaise silently snickered as his best friend winced at the pain. From them on he looked down at his food before he ate it, so as to make sure that it would not happen again. He knew that he had feelings for the girl, but when did his feelings advance to watching her every move. It began to seem a bit creepy as lunch went on.

"You should probably stop watching her every move before she thinks you are stalking her or something," Blaise nudged his best friend, causing his chin to fall off of the palm of his hand, though it would have been more funny if he had not caught himself and his face would have landed in his food.

"Shut-up Blaise!" he growled unenthusiastically. "I am not stalking her, just worried about her, that's all," he watched her get up. He was worried about her; he knew what it was like to lose one parent, but two parents? That leaves her with no one in this world to rely on as a parental figure. He was not sure if even he, the master of containing his emotions, could handle that, he had a hard enough time losing his father, and that should have been the best thing that happened to him.

"Is she going to be ok?" Blaise asked worriedly. "I thought that she wasn't upset about the whole Nick thing."

"She's not," he never took his eyes off of her as she left the great hall.

"Then why is she such a mess?" now Blaise was completely confused. "And what is there for you to be so worried about her for anyways if she is not upset about Nick getting some girl pregnant?"

"Her parents died in a car accident yesterday," he said blandly, and he still would not look at Blaise. Even though Hermione had left the great hall, he just continued to stare at the large doors that she had just shuffled through. "I'm worried about her, because she is pretty broken up about it. I mean, wouldn't you be if both of your parents just died?" his voice was laced with concern.

"Oh," Blaise glanced at his best friend in disbelief, even though it didn't really show on his face. "I had no idea. I'm sorry that I questioned it."

"It's fine. No one knows about it except for Nick and me, and probably Dumbledore and McGonagall. I just found out when I went out there to see why they were lagging behind. I thought that he had hurt her or something after we all had left them in the entryway, but she was crying about her parents. I don't really know what to say to her. I mean, what do you say to someone in that position? 'I'm sorry' doesn't make things better, because it doesn't take away the pain; it only reminds you that something bad has happened. I hate just standing there though, because it makes me feel useless and like I am just prying into her life. I mean, we are friends and everything and I know that she just wanted someone there at the moment, but this friendship is new. Am I crossing the line? What in the hell am I supposed to do now? "

"You have some background in this area, so you should know what sort of things…" Blaise glanced at him carefully when he was interrupted by the burst of sound that came from Draco. .

"Thank you for that," he huffed in anger, and gave Blaise a smoldering look.

"No, I just mean you know how she feels kind of, since your dad passed away. I'm sorry Dray; I didn't mean it to sound so bad. I just meant she might be able to relate to you, or you could always just listen. You went through something like this, and you know what you wanted to have said to your or not said to you when it happened, so just go off of those guidelines. I don't know if she is going to want a whole lot of advice at this time, so you might just have to be there for her. I really think that she just needs a friend, and I think that you are the perfect person since a similar situation happened to you fairly recently."

"Thanks for brining it back up man, but sorry I jumped down your throat so quickly," Draco stood up to leave, "I'll catch up with you later."

"We'll drop by later, maybe try to cheer her up a bit," he replied, but Draco had already left, and was in too much of a daze to pay attention to him anyways. "Bye."

OOO

This was driving her crazy. No, she was already crazy over this; she was well on her way to insane by now. She was now lying on the floor in a crumpled ball, sobbing her eyes out until she had drained the reservoir that she called tear ducts. Hermione was actually surprised that she still had any tears left to cry. It was getting to her last heart string and it was tugging awfully hard, hard enough that it was about to break that last heart string, and drop her heart into a bottomless pit that would smash her heart as soon as it hit the rocky bottom. She had come to calling the incident "it" in her head, so as not to think about the actual reason for all of her sorrow. She did not quite know what happened. She had been walking down the hall and then an image of her parents' mangled car flashed before her eyes, and the next thing she knew, she had stumbled to the stone wall, and collapsed to the floor in a crumpled ball.

"Hermione?" she heard the voice in the distance, but she really could not understand that it was directed towards her. "Hermione…are you alright? Here, let me help you up," she felt a pair of strong arms slide around her. One went under her arms, and the other slid beneath her knee caps. The arms gently lifted her from the icy cold, stone ground, and place her against a warm, well chiseled chest. She slowly wrapped her arms around the person's neck, as a way to make herself feel safe in this situation.

"Th…th…th…" she began to feel as if she were slowly being carried down the hall, in a direction that was unknown to her at the moment. She closed her bleary eyes, and rested herself again the warm body that was carrying her. She put all of her trust in this unknown stranger, believing that this kind soul would help her and take care of her.

"It's ok, you don't have to say anything," Draco carried her around the corner, and to the portrait hole leading to their common room. The closer they got, the more he could feel the wetness of her tears soak through his thin black t-shirt and onto his skin. She kept her grip tight around his neck, and tightened her grip even more, as soon as he tried to set her down on the couch. He adjusted her in his arms, and sat her down in his lap on the right hand side of the black, leather couch, and let her cry on his shoulder.

A long time ago, he would have never gotten within five feet of a crying girl, or a crying anybody, though his guy friends did not really cry very much. Comforting was not his thing or his style, but this girl did something to him that changed everything about who he used to be. Eventually, Hermione cried herself to sleep on Draco's lap, and as time passed, Draco began to doze off as well since there was nothing better to do, seeing as there was a sleeping girl on his lap. They shifted during their nap, leaving Draco sitting up on the couch with his head leaned back against the back of the couch, and Hermione curled up into a ball on his lap, and her head on the arm of the couch. They would both be in a bit of pain when they woke up after their nap.

OOO

They had just walked into the Heads' common room to check on Hermione and to see if she and Draco wanted to go to dinner, but they looked quite busy at the moment. They decided that sleep was probably better for Hermione, since they would rather see her sleeping and calm than awake and sobbing with anxiety, because of her eventful day.

"Those two are so adorable together," Ginny said to Ron and Harry as they stood inside of the portrait hole, "why can't they just figure it out for themselves?" The boys looked at her as if she had just grown another head from out of the side of her neck.

"Hermione and Malfoy? Together and adorable?" Ron said with a slightly disgusted look on his face. "Are you mad, Ginny? Those are four words that should never go together again, and if they do I very well may be sick."

"Shut-up Ron, they are cute. Just because you don't think that they are adorable together, does not mean that they aren't. You don't know everything about everything," she rolled her eyes at how stupid her brother was. 'How am I even apart of this family?' was a question that she often asked herself. "Anyways, let's leave them be and go to dinner. I'm starving, and they look too peaceful to wake up," Ginny dragged the two appalled boys out of Hermione and Draco's common room, before they could break up the couple.

The boys argued all the way down the hall and into the great hall, before they sat down at the Gryffindor table, and decided to start shoveling food into their mouths, which shut them up a considerable amount. Life was quiet and good when the boys had food in their mouths, well most of the time. Nothing was being criticized, and there could be talk about other things than quidditch.

OOO

As he opened the door of the castle, an icy blast of winter air rushed by him and chilled him to the core, causing him to shiver. As soon as he had left Hermione and Draco, Nick headed outside into the crisp cool weather, to sort out his thoughts. He wrapped his arms tightly around his torso, as an attempt to keep himself even the slightest bit warm. His mind raced with thoughts of every kind. He thought about Hermione, her parent's car accident, his and Hermione's past, and the back of his mind kept reminding him that Casey was also apart of his life and he needed to think about her also. The thoughts crowded his mind so much, that he could not even keep track of what he was trying to think about. The rain began to fall, as if it were a sign from above. At first there were just large heavy drops that fell to the ground, but after a few minutes, the rains became small, fast, and hard, piercing his skin in a sharp and painful manner, while also soaking him to the bone, but it felt good, he could handle the pain and he eventually became immune to it.

Nick wandered around outside aimlessly in the pouring rain, before he finally came to rest at the lake's edge. He plucked a single blade of wet grass, and destroyed the piece of nature with his long boney fingers. He continued the torturous act over and over again, it was a nervous habit that he had always done when something was eating away at him. The knot in his stomach seemed to continuously grow tighter and tighter, but he was unsure of exactly why he was feeling this way. Was it guilt, loneliness, or maybe even heartbreak? He could not tell. All that he could think about, was how could he have just handed her over to Draco? How could he have just let her go? They were not together anymore, but that was still no reason to just leave a friend in so much pain.

'How could I have just walked away in a time where she needed me the most? Did she really need me? Well, she did come searching for me with the news that she had not shared with even her best friends. I should go and find her. I can't believe that I left her there with Draco, the guy that she was enemies with for so long,' he went to stand up in search of Hermione, when he became lightheaded, and a vision of his pregnant fiancé passed through his mind. He had to let Hermione go so that she could move on with her life. He had screwed up, meaning that he could not hold onto her for forever, no matter how much he loved her. He had a fiancé waiting for him, whom was carrying his child, whom he needed desperately to come to terms with. It isn't that he didn't like Casey, his heart just needed to let go of Hermione so that his love could move in another direction. He needed the peace in his heart, just as Hermione did. He should have talked to her much earlier, but he just couldn't. He was having just as hard of a time coming to terms with what had happened, as she was. Now all he needed to do was let her go, so that he could move on.

He watched as the raindrops caused the water to ripple beautifully. He was soaked, since he was sitting in the wide openness of the castle grounds. The thin material of his royal blue t-shirt and his khaki pants were clinging to his body. He lay down on the ground, with his knees up in the air, his fingers laced behind his head, and he let the piercing rain hit his body, in an attempt to take away the pain in his heart. Pain that he had no one else to blame, except for himself. He let his thoughts of Hermione soak into the sopping ground beneath him along with the rain, and his let his thoughts of Casey consume his mind, and he tried to let them take over his heart as well, though that part was a bit more complicated at the moment.

He was thinking about what to get for Casey. It was almost Valentine's Day, and he needed to find something to give to Casey, that would show her that he really did care for her, even though she was so obsessed with the fact that she loved him that she would never even notice if he did or did not love her. He decided to get up from the ground and head inside, before he got pneumonia. As he stood up and realized how wet and cold he actually was, he figured that he should have thought about the fact he could get sick before he sat out in the rain for two hours.

OOO

She definitely could not remember how she had gotten into this position. The last thing she remembered was seeing the car accident flash before her eyes, and then she fell to the ground when everything went black. Where was she anyways? She lifted her head from the cushion which she was lying on.

'Wait, who am I…?' she looked up at the person who's lap she was lying on, as soon as she noticed the pair of legs beneath her, but she was not expecting to see the face that she saw. 'Uh oh!' her mind screamed, because she did not think that this was a good situation to have been put in. Here she was asleep with her head on Malfoy's lap, while he was asleep as well. 'How did I get myself into this position?' her mind searched for a reason of what she had done, 'Oh man, what went on with me today,' all she could think about was the situation she seemed to have put herself into, and she could not even remember exactly how she had gotten there.

She lifted her head off of Draco's lap and slowly pulled her body up into a sitting position, trying not to disturb him. She ran her hand up and down her bare arms that were covered in goose bumps, in an attempt to warm herself from the freezing temperature of the room. She was definitely not dressed in a way to keep herself warm, not that she had planned for this sort for of sleeping arrangement or anything, since all she had on was a short, light blue, faded, denim mini skirt, a baby pink halter top, and a pair of hot pink Converse tennis shoes. She glanced at the fire and noticed that it had gone out a while ago, since there was not even a hint of a glow left in the logs, leaving the fireplace to look like a huge black hole, with a black mass of charred logs left at the bottom of it. Looking at the black hole of a fireplace, made a shiver run down Hermione's spine, and she physically shuttered. She grabbed her wand out of the waistband of her skirt, and flicked it towards the fireplace lighting up a roaring fire as she felt Draco shutter from behind her. She conjured a blanket, and covered him up, as best as she could, in his sitting position. She smiled at the sleeping blond and then headed up the spiral staircase and into the bathroom to take a hot bath.

The bathroom steamed up quickly, as the hot water rose higher and higher, and the vanilla bubbles got dangerously close to overflowing onto the bathroom floor. She stripped down her clothing, tested the temperature of the water with her big toe, and then carefully submerged herself under the water to get accustomed to the almost scolding temperature. She took her hair down from her ponytail, and threw her rubber band next to her pile of clothing that she had left by the bathroom counter. She let the hot water surround her and burn away all of the hurt within her. She needed to let this go, because it was weighing her down so much that it was painfully breaking her body, heart, and spirit to pieces. She had not actually smiled since she had received the news about her parents from her Uncle yesterday evening. He had not spoken to her family without confrontation since could remember, but last night his letter expressed what seemed like actual concern for her and the situation.

'I need to stop thinking about them,' she scolded herself. She had always wished that she knew her mother's family for something other than the hatred they felt for her and her parents. 'They don't care. They probably won't even show up for the funeral tomorrow,' she thought bitterly and tried to think of something else, but struggled. 'Dad's family will surely be there; at least someone was supportive of them and their marriage. Mum's family doesn't even register me or my dad on their radar,' she thought of the bitter fighting that she used to hear when her mum would contact her family, only to end up with even more hatred than was there before. 'How could a family just turn their back on their own family member, it wasn't as if she married a clown or anything, just someone from a lower status than their family was at,' so many thoughts were swimming through her head that she did not even notice the person whom had entered the room.

"Sorry Hermione, I didn't realize that you were in here," Draco rubbed his eyes and yawned sleepily, but Hermione never answered him. 'She must be out of it,' he looked to see if she was sleeping, but he only saw a glazed look in her eyes. 'It's been a long day,' he stated simply to himself. 'I would not be surprised if she fell asleep in there,' he did not expect much less from the girl. He did not know if he should bring her back to the present, so as to make sure that she was ok, or if he should just turn around and walk out of the bathroom, he chose the later and walked into his bedroom.

A silent tear rolled down her cheek as she continued to convince herself that her mother's family did not care. Their hatred killed a piece of her mother's heart, a part that she could never get back, even though she was going to start trying to patch things up with them again, and Hermione did not want to hate her family or be treated as if she were never really related to them.

"STOP IT!" she shook her head and screamed aloud. She could not dwell on these people; they did not care about her so why should she care about them? She needed to stop thinking about them and about her parents because it was driving her insane and there was not much more that she could take at the moment.

OOO

"Is everything OK?" Draco ran into the bathroom as the sound of her screaming. She was just staring at him, with a priceless look on her face. "Hermione? Is everything OK? Did someone hurt you?"

Fine," she continued to stare at him. "I was just thinking about some stuff," his naked torso glistened with sweat, and he was only wearing a pair of blue Adidas rip-away pants, the ones with the snaps up the sides. He was gorgeous.

"I heard you scream," he had no idea just how sexy he looked at the moment, dripping with sweat. "Are you sure that everything is ok? I would ask if you had seen a ghost, but that is not uncommon around here."

"Ha ha Draco, you're a funny guy aren't you?" she snapped out of the trance that his body had put on her, and was now beginning to realize that she was sitting in the bathtub, and that she was very naked at the moment. "Um…I'm not really dressed to be having a conversation with you."

"Sorry," he blushed with embarrassment, "I just…I just wanted to make sure that everything was ok," he turned around to leave.

"I'm fine," she blushed as well, "thank you for checking on me."

"You're welcome," he stopped just before he shut the door, and peaked through the door frame. "Blaise said that everyone might drop by a little later, if you want to hang out with us or anything."

"I might just do that," she said thoughtfully. "Thanks."

As soon as he closed the door, he made his Everlast punching bag disappear, and he flopped down onto his bed. He had to get rid of these feelings. They had just become friends, and he did not want to jeopardize their budding relationship in anyway, since it had taken them so long to get to this point in their lives.

OOO

She slipped out of the now cold bathwater, and a trail of water droplets followed her all the way into her room. She turned on her stereo, and the sounds of TLC filled the room.

_And you want my love? Well that's alright. _

_Well it will be there for you morning, noon, and night_

_But you gotta be good, and do it right._

_Ain't got no time for part-time lovin' in my life._

_Well you wanna be loved? Hey that's O.K._

_Cause it falls in line right with my sexuality._

_But you gotta be down, a nickel gotta be true._

_Cause otherwise this "B" ain't got no time for you._

_Oh baby, baby, baby, I got so much love in me._

_Ooh baby, baby, baby Cause if you're gonna get me off, you got to love me deep._

She dried her hair with a quick spell and then straightened it with another. She searched through her closet, wearing only her bra and underwear, and she sang loudly and danced to the beat.

_Well you want my heart, and all my time? _

_Well it won't be there if you can't deal with my mind._

_Cause a girl like me, won't stand for less._

_I require plenty conversation with my sex._

_Long as you know that I could have any man I want to, baby that's actual and factual._

_But still I choose you to be with me, and work on me so you better not flake it up._

_Baby, baby, baby._

_Ain't got no time for part-time lovin'._

_I got so much love in me._

_I gotta be loved, and that's O.K._

_Baby, baby, baby._

_Cause if you're gonna get me off, you got to love me deep._

She finally decided on a pair of dark blue, low rise jeans and a pink tube top and then made her way downstairs into the common room. Now that she was awake, and past the crying stage of her grief, she was about to move on to the next stage.

She flicked the stereo to the off position, and sauntered her way down the spiral staircase and into the kitchen. She sat on the couch just sitting there beginning to drink herself into a drunken stupor.

She downed three beers before Draco even made it out of bathroom, wearing a pair of dark blue jeans and a royal blue t-shirt.

OOO

"Hi," a cheerily voice said as he made his way down the spiral staircase, shocking him a bit, and causing him to stumble down the last three stairs but landed flat on his feet, thankfully. 'That was graceful Draco,' he scolded himself silently.

"Hi," he said cautiously, and then his eyes moved directly to the beer bottle she had clenched in her hand, and that was less than half full. "How many of those have you had?" he asked her worriedly.

"Um, I think this is my fourth," she said scrunching up her nose, is an unsure way. The alcohol affected her much more easily in her current state since she guzzled them down one after another, only stopping to open the next beer.

"Hermione, do you really think that this is a smart way to try and forget about what happened?" he walked over and sat down next to her as she continued to slightly bounce up and down on her heels, which she was sitting on. "Do you really think that everything will just go away after a night of drowning your sorrows with alcohol?"

"Yup," Draco's eyes followed her as she guzzled down the rest of her beer, and then sauntered over to the fridge to get another one. "This is the absolute BEST way to get over something that is bothering you," she had already finished a third of the bottle by the time she had reached the couch, "especially when it is something that you really want to forget. You should try it sometime. How about I grab you one right now," she began to get up again, before he stopped her.

"No, thanks I'm fine. You know Hermione; all of those things that you want to forget will not be chased away by your alcohol binge for forever. All of those things will still be there swimming through your mind tomorrow and you will have a major headache to go along with them, making them even more intense than they were before you started drinking."

"At least they are gone for a little while," she began to sober up a bit at the serious conversation. "Why are you talking about this? Do you want me to feel the pain of my parents' death, so immensely that it will drive me insane? I am sitting here trying not to think about my parents so that I can have peace in my life for just a little while, before I have to come to the realization of their death tomorrow at the funeral! I just want to forget for ONE NIGHT! JUST ONE NIGHT before my whole life will turn upside down and change forever. That day is coming a lot sooner than I ever would have hoped, and I want to deal with it the way that I want to deal with it. Why? Why would you try and make me try and hurt so badly?" she had started to cry again. 'Why is he doing this to me?' she asked herself frantically. "What in the hell is your problem Malfoy? I thought that you were my friend!" she screamed at him, and he winced.

"I don't want you to hurt Hermione; I was just trying to help you. You shouldn't be drinking like this. You will only end up hurting yourself. Won't you just stop drinking and talk to me instead? It will make you feel better over all, instead of just for a short amount of time!" he was trying to be kind, but she was acting ridiculous. 'This is crazy. I can't sit by and let her drink herself into a drunken stupor just so that she can stop feeling pain for one night!' his mind screamed.

"YOU ARE NOT MY FATHER!" she stopped at the realization of what she had just said, she could not believe that those words had just come out of her mouth. Her mouth hung open and she stared into space. Her eyes were blurry, from the tears that began to flood them. He tried to hug her, but she gently pushed him away. "Stop," she whispered absentmindedly. "Just stop." She stood up and paced in front of the fireplace. 'Daddy!' the voice inside of her head cried in almost complete realization, "Mum!" as much as she had tired to forget about her parents, this argument made it all rush back and smack her hard in the face. She put her hand gently on her cheek as if she had truly been smacked across the face by some large invisible force.

"Hermione?" she had blocked him out. At the moment, she could only focus on the memories of her and her parents, that were breaking down the dam that she had built up to hold them back and keep them from entering her brain. She thought of all of the time she used to spend with her parents when she was a child. The memories faded as she grew older, and she wished that she could have had more time to spend with them in the past seven years. Summers and Christmas break was not nearly enough time to see your family during an entire year. She did not get to spend nearly enough time with her family as she should have over the most important years of her life. "Hermione?" he cautiously placed his hand gently on her shoulders, and was surprised when she did not flinch or pull him away. After a moment of him rubbing his hands on her shoulders, she leaned her back into his chest, not realizing what she was doing. She was too engrossed with the memories of her family to realize that she was anywhere other than her parent's home, waking up to the smell of fresh blueberry pancakes wafting through the air, and into her bedroom.

_The sun came streaming in through my baby pink curtains and onto my face, warming my skin so that it was almost burning to the touch. I squeeze my eyes shut as tightly as I can, but the sun keeps poking and prodding at my eyes until I decide to open them and begin the new day. _

"_Sweetheart," I heard a voice call from downstairs, "Breakfast is ready sweetheart!"_

_I swung my legs over the edge of my bed, and threw back the pink comforter. My feet did not touch the ground, so I jumped to the ground and landed on the plush carpet, which I squished my toes into as I stretched my arms up as high as they would go, which was not very high for a six year old, and yawned a huge yawn. My blue nightgown dropped down from my hips to my just below my knees and I shuffled my feet along the soft carpet and down the stairs towards the hardwood kitchen floor. It was the beginning of a brand new ordinary day, just an ordinary day._

_The sunshine poured in through the kitchen windows and filled the room with a soft, yellow, comforting light. I walked into the kitchen, where Grandpa was sitting at the kitchen table reading the newspaper, and Grandma was sitting next to him knitting with a beautiful baby yellow colored yarn. _

"_Good morning," I climbed up into my usual chair at the table, with a yawn, as I greeted my grandparents. _

"_Happy Birthday to You. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday Dear Hermione, Happy Birthday to You" Mum and Dad sang as they entered the room with huge smiles on their faces. They were not there last night when I went to bed. I thought that they would still be out of town; at least they told me that they would be gone until Saturday. _

"_You're back early!" I jumped up and hugged and kissed each of them as soon as Dad had sat down my plate of blueberry pancakes, and Mum followed with a big glass of milk. "I thought you would be gone still!" I was so excited that I could barely believe my eyes. _

"_We came back early," Mum smiled sweetly. "We couldn't miss your birthday darling."_

"_Thank you, this was the best birthday present that I could have asked for!" I squealed with delight._

"_Make a wish sweetheart," I closed my eyes as tight as I could and made a wish. I wished for something that I wished for with all of my heart every year, and as soon as I opened my eyes, I blew out the small blue and white striped candle in hopes that my wish would finally come true. Mum, Dad, Grandma, and Grandpa clapped and cheered, and had huge smiles on their faces. "What did you wish for?"_

"_I can't tell you Daddy," she said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, "If I tell you, then it won't come true."_

"_Of course sweetheart, how could I forget?" they all laughed and then dug into their breakfast before it got cold. _

'Where am I?' she thought as she looked around the room. "When did everyone get here?" she asked her friends who were sitting around the common room couches and chairs.

"A few minutes ago," Ginny said, taking a swig of her beer. Everyone was drinking, which made Hermione feel as if she needed to have another one.

"Oh, sorry. I must have been out of it," she stumbled into the kitchen to grab a new drink, seeing as she was still slightly drunk from the five beers she had had previously.

"Are you alright? You drifted off somewhere for about fifteen minutes," Draco had followed her into the kitchen as was standing directly behind her. His chest was resting against her back, and his face was hovering over her shoulder, trapping her in between the refrigerator and its door.

"I am fine," she maneuvered her body so that she could turn around, coming face to face with the tall blond, who's face was now a mere inch or two from her own. "Just remembering something." Their eyes locked onto each other's, and Draco searched for a reason to stop what he was about to do. He tried to fight it, since she was vulnerable, but he just could not help himself. He leaned in and their lips connected in a soft, sweet kiss. He pulled back and opened his eyes. Her eyes were still closed, and her lips were still in a slight pout. She was so beautiful. She opened her eyes and smiled slightly. She ducked below his arm and slid her way out of the position that he had put her in, turned her head around and smiled at Draco, and then sauntered her way back over to her friends, whom had not noticed the previous engagement between the two of them.

"How are you feeling Hermione?" Nick asked worriedly as she sat down on the couch, squeezing herself between Blaise and him.

"I'm doing great at the moment," 'She's a bit drunk at the moment' Malfoy mouthed from behind her, and everyone slightly nodded their head. "I am so glad that all of you are here right now. What would I do without all of my friends?" she rested her head on Nick's shoulder, and he gently placed his arm around her. "I love you guys! I mean it…I really do love you guys!"

"We love you too Hermione," Harry and Ron chuckled at their best friends drunken state.

"I hope that you will all come to the funeral with me tomorrow. You are all my family and I would really love it if you all came."

"Of course Hermione," like anyone would say no to a friend whose parents just died. "Of course we will come with you."

She passed out as soon as they said that they would come with her. All of the pressure of what had happened had finally worn her out. Nick picked up the small girl, and carried her upstairs and gently laid her on her large four poster in her room. He pulled the comforter down placed her between the sheets. He tucked her in, and took one last look at her when he got to the door.

"I love you Hermione," he closed the door and walked downstairs and joined the rest of the group in the common room.

"I love you too," she closed her eyes, "my best friend," and fell into a sleep filled with recent memories of her family.

_The grass was green and wet with the morning dew. She had been out since four that morning, for a five mile run. She collapsed with exhaustion on her front lawn, panting and sweating when she had returned home. Her shorts and sports bra were drenched with sweat, and sticking to her body. Her socks were damp, and seemed to be filling her Adidas tennis shoes with sweat with every step that she had taken that morning. _

_She had been working harder in the past week, than she ever had before. Her championship game was tomorrow afternoon, and she needed to be ready. This was her big chance to prove to everyone that she was a great soccer player. Tony, her coach, had worked some extra drills with her this past week, and spent a great deal of extra time with her in an attempt to get her ready for the big game. He had scouts coming to watch her in this game, HER! He had hopes of her playing for the pros someday; he had always pushed her to the limits, but only in a way of encouragement. As she lay there on the cold grass, she thought about her options, even though she wasn't really sure what she wanted to do with her life yet, she had many options. The difficulty with having so many options was she had to decide. She had two different and separate lives to live that needed to come together eventually; she just had to decide which one was more important to the furthering of her life. The people in those lives made it hard for her to decide, they all wanted her to do something different with her life. She knew that it would be harder for her to incorporate her life in the wizarding world with her life in the muggle world, than it would be to incorporate her muggle life into her life in the wizarding world. Her schooling would be over by this time next year, and then her decision would have to be final. Her life would then gradually move forward, down whichever path she chose. _

_In the wizarding world, people expected her to do something great with her life. They expected her to become something like be a famous healer, an auror, a professor at Hogwarts, the Mistress of Magic, a journalist for the daily profit, or something along those lines. She thought that all of those would be great career choices, but which one would she chose. On the other hand, how great it be to be a professional soccer star? She had Tony on her back all during the summer, in the muggle world, poking and prodding at her about soccer. Tony noticed her potential early on, and wanted the best for her, he wanted her to be the biggest soccer star on the women's team for England someday, but he would be happy if she played anywhere. Soccer was her life in the muggle world, seeing as that was really the only thing that she had time for when she was home from Hogwarts. Tony only became her coach when she was sixteen years old, but took care of her. He was a great friend to her, and had been after her for as long as she could remember but she had been with Nick. _

_Her mind swam with thoughts of the mixing of two worlds in her very own world as she lay there on the grass. It had now been thirty minutes since she had gotten home from her run, and she decided that she should go inside before her parents wondered where she had gotten off too. _

"_Morning Mum, Morning Dad," she said entering the kitchen and grabbing herself a plate of eggs and sausage from off of the counter. _

"_Good morning," they said in unison._

"_You're up early sweetheart," Dad said to me in curiosity. "How far did you run today?"_

"_Been up since four, and ran five miles," she smiled proudly, and then continued to scarf down her breakfast. "Got to be ready for the game tomorrow. Scouts are going to be watching you know."_

"_We know sweetie. Don't stress yourself out too much though. We would rather see you come out of this in one piece, instead of straining yourself so badly that you hurt yourself and can't play soccer ever again," Mum was always the one who played the devil's advocate. It was not as if she were trying to tear me down or anything, but she was trying to be my voice of reason. _

"_I promise to take care of myself Mum," I smiled at my parents and took my plate over to the sink. "I'm going to go and take a shower now before I have to leave for practice."_

"_Love you," my parents said as I walked out of the room._

"_Love you too," I yelled back and ran upstairs, rushing in and out of the shower, dressing in my pink sport tank and black soccer shorts, threw my hair into a high ponytail, ran out the door with a quick good bye, and ran the mile to the soccer field where my team was already warming up. _

"_Hermione, glad you could join us," Tony yelled from the other side of the field as I started running suicides. _

"_Shut up Tony," I stuck my tongue out at him playfully, but continued to run._

_Practice was long and brutal in preparation for tomorrow's game, but the run home seemed quick. I ran upstairs and took my second shower of the day, dressed in a pair of red sweat pants and a black wife beater, and ran downstairs to eat dinner with my parents. We spent the whole night talking happily throughout dinner, and then watched two of our favorite movies before we all fell asleep that night. _

She woke up from the wonderful dream that consumed her night of sleep, and then sadly thought, "Who would have thought that that game would have been the last they would watch me play? Who would have thought that that was the last time I would have spent time with my family, just the three of us."

**Howdy there! Well I updated much faster than I did the last time, even though I said it would be up by last weekend. I had it written, but I decided to add to it and make it a bit more involved. I also made it much longer than the last chapter by about ten pages. Anyways, I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter. I tried to make it a good one, and I enjoyed writing it a lot. I look forward to hearing what you all think so please review. Keep reading, and I'll keep writing. **


	18. The Funeral

**Chapter 18 – The Funeral**

She had tried as hard as she could to go back to sleep after last night's dream, but she could not, though she also absolutely refused to fully wake up. She had tried reading, listening to music, taking a hot bath, she had tried everything that she could think of. She was lying in her bed, her limbs askew underneath her huge royal blue comforter. Since she woke up this morning, she had tossed and turned wildly in an attempt to get comfortable, which never happened. The world was trying to pull her limp body out of her warm, comfortable bed and into the cold, cruel world, but gravity was on her side today and kept holding her in her place.

Today was a sad day, and brought great grief upon her heart. The weather seemed to fit her mood perfectly. A thick grey cloud covered the earth, making the world seem as if it was wrapped in a thick wool blanket to stay warm on a cold winter's day. As she listened to the soft pounding of the rain on her window pain, her heart seemed to pick up that rhythm and follow along closely with it. The thunder roared loudly outside, and she noticed that the shy lit up brightly with each and every crack of white lightening. The storm was right above her, seeing as there was no time left between each streak of lightening and each roaring boom of thunder. She closed her eyes and wished that she could wake up a few days earlier.

"Hermione?" she heard a soft knocking at the door. "Hermione, are you awake?" the male voice sounded soft and worried, with a hint of curiousness.

"Yes," she said dully, and continued to stare at the ceiling. "Come in if you want," her bedroom door slowly opened, and Draco's blond head appeared around the corner, "morning."

"Good morning," he asked cautiously as he walked over to her bed and sat down on the edge. "Feeling alright this morning?"

"No," she said simply. "I have a headache on top of thinking about everything else that is going on today. You should really just say I told you so before this conversation goes any farther," she said bitterly without looking at him. Actually she had not looked at him once since he walked into her room.

"I did not come in here to say I told you so," he was slightly angry that she only thought the worst of him. "I came in here to check on you and to make sure that you were going to be ok," the hurt and slight tone of anger in his voice seemed to rise as he kept talking to her. "What did I do that was so wrong? Yesterday we were fine, if not better than fine, and now you are acting as if I am out to get you and make your life miserable, he tried to calm himself down. "Hermione, I know this is a hard day for you, but please don't push me away. I want to be here for you," he pleaded with her but he still got no physical response from her, "please," he hated pleading, he was not a pleader, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

"Sorry," she said dully, "I have to go and get ready for today, we have to leave soon," the world had finally persuaded her to get up and get moving, maybe it was the presence of the new being that had entered her room. She walked into the bathroom, stripping as she went and not caring that Draco was watching her. She was completely naked before she clicked the door shut and then walked into the bathroom for a quick shower. It was as if she were a robot, not allowed to show any emotion or feel anything.

OOO

"What in the hell was that?" he asked himself quietly as she closed the bathroom door.

"Hermione?" he heard a soft voice from outside the door.

"Come in Ginny, Hermione's in the bathroom," he continued to stare at the closed door leading into the bathroom while Ginny entered the room.

"Good morning Draco," Ginny sat down on the bed next to him.

"Morning," he pealed his eyes away from the door and looked at Ginny's face which had her sadness written all over it.

"What are you doing in Hermione's room staring at the bathroom door?" she asked curiously.

"We seemed to just have a run in before she went in there to take a shower and get ready," he rung his hands and stared down at them while he did so. "She was awfully upset with me and I am not quite sure why."

"I'm so sorry Draco," she placed her hand gently on his shoulder in a comforting way. "I am sure that it is nothing personal, just her grief and anger of the situation that she's been put in taking over her emotions today."

"Yeah, you're probably right," he smiled at her slightly, trying to conceal his pain.

"Oh, now trying to steal your best friend's girlfriend huh?" Hermione said snottily as she walked back into the room after her very quick shower. "You should watch out for him Ginny. The boy thinks he knows everything and that he will get whatever he wants or feels that he needs at any given point in time."

"Oh Hermione, be nice to Draco," she stood up and walked over to Hermione and hugged her. "Is there anything that I can do for you this morning?"

"No, but thanks Ginny," she hugged her back and watched Draco slip out of the room quietly. "I made a huge mistake last night Ginny," she pulled back from the hug and got a questioning look from her friend. "I kissed Malfoy last night in the kitchen while I was drunk. What is wrong with me?" she plopped down on her bed and put her head in her hands.

"That is why you were so cold to him this morning?" Ginny sat down next to her. "Hermione, you really should apologize to the boy, he is worried about you. He is only trying to be your friend."

"That's the whole point Ginny, he is so worried about me and everything but for what reason? Is he really just genuinely worried about a friend, or is he worried about me because he feels like something happened between us and he thinks it is going somewhere and he has to be worried about me."

"Listen to yourself Hermione. Your reasoning is completely mad. Of course the boy is genuinely concerned about you. Stop thinking so much into this," she smiled and shook her head.

"It's not funny Ginny," Hermione looked at her and glared slightly.

"It is funny," she smiled. "I don't see what the huge mistake is with you kissing Draco anyways. I think that you two should be together and have for a long time."

"GINNY!" Hermione looked at her with shock written all over her face. "You can't be serious. Me and Draco? No way, it would never work. I mean us as friends? Well that is ok, but together as in he would be my boyfriend? I don't think so. No way, it is never going to happen."

"Stop acting so shocked," she rolled her eyes at her friend's outburst. "It is not that crazy that the two of you would be perfect together. All of us think that you two would be perfect, even Nick does. Hermione, you have to stop thinking the worst of him, we know that you two are friends and everything, but can't you at least give him a chance? He adores you; you can see it in his eyes when he looks at you or whenever someone brings up your name in a conversation."

"Stop it Ginny," she ignored her last comment. "We have to get going and I am still not ready."

"Alright, you finish getting ready, I'll meet you downstairs," she stood up and walked towards the door. "Think about what I said though, I mean it," she clicked the door shut behind her, leaving Hermione all by herself in her room.

OOO

She tried to ignore everything that Ginny had told her, but it just mixed in with the procession of other thoughts that kept running through her mind. She sat on her bed for a few more moments before she decided to finish getting ready. Her straightened hair hung down her back, and rested right around her waist. She dropped her towel and put on her undergarments before she went searching for something to wear to the funeral. She stood in front of her closet for what seemed like hours, searching for the perfect outfit. Nothing seemed good enough for her to wear, but she decided that she had to make a decision and picked the best think that she could find. She finally decided upon a silky, black, sleeveless dress that fell just above her knees. She found her strappy black heals and buckled the straps around her ankles. She took a last look at herself in her full length mirror, and then walked out of her room closing the door with a slight click.

"Is everyone ready?" Hermione asked quietly, not making direct eye contact with any of her friends, especially with Draco.

"We're ready," Nick walked over to her and put his arm around her shoulder. "Are you ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," she looked at him sadly. "I guess we should head to Dumbledore's office now or else we'll be late."

"Alright," Nick said and everyone followed him out of the Heads' common room, except for Draco who still sat on the couch. "Aren't you coming?"

"I don't think so," Draco stared at the fire. "I forgot about some things that I have to get done today. I will see you all when you get back."

"Um…okay," Nick said and guided Hermione out of the room and into the hall. Hermione did not even glance back at him as they left the room, but he consumed her thoughts as they continued to walk down the hall.

"I um…forgot something back in the common room," Ginny said and turned around and started heading back down the hall. "I'll meet you there in a few minutes," she took off at a slow run and flew through the portrait hole where she found Draco, whom hadn't moved an inch since they left. "You are coming with us; I don't care what sort of made up things you said you had to get finished today. You can't sit here all by yourself because Hermione decided to let her emotions get the better of her. So, get your arse up off of that couch and get a move on mate," she grabbed his hand and dragged him up with all of her might.

"I don't want to be somewhere that I am not wanted Ginny," he said sadly.

"You are wanted," she continued to drag him towards the portrait hole. "I want you there, Blaise, Harry, Ron, and the crazy girls want you there, and even though it may not seem like it, Hermione wants you there. She cares about you so much that you are the one person that she is going to take out all of her emotions on today. Don't take it personal, it just means that she likes you a lot more than the rest of us," she cracked a smile, but he just looked at her as if she had grown another head. "If I had anything to say about it, I would assume that she may even love you!" she did not notice the shocked expression on Draco's face, but she sure was thankful for the sudden lapse of force that was pulling against her at that very moment and she was easily able to drag him down the hallway and up to Dumbledore's office. All heads turned towards them as they walked through the door, and Hermione glared at Ginny, who still had a hold of Draco's hand.

"Everyone is here I suppose?" Dumbledore did not wait for an answer, "Good. "The floo network has been hooked up to your parents' house Miss Granger," Dumbledore said as soon as they had all walked into the door. "No one but you and your friends will be able to use the fireplace to get back to Hogwarts, because I am closing the network for the night and will open it back up again as soon as you would like to come back. Tomorrow perhaps would be a good day? Or would you like more time?"

"Tomorrow evening will be fine Professor," Hermione looked at the Headmaster and nodded her head as a signal that she was ready to go.

"Send me an owl when you are ready to come back, so I can open the network, and I will see you all when you come back tomorrow evening," the Headmaster said as they one by one threw floo powder into the fireplace, and disappeared into a mass of green flames. "Take care of yourself Hermione," he said before she stepped in and disappeared into the fire with a solemn look on her face.

"Thank you Professor," she looked down and disappeared into a wild whirlwind of green flames, only to end up in the one place that made her mind flood with memories and brought tears to her eyes. Her friends were standing around in the living room, awaiting her arrival. The room looked so sad, seeing as everyone standing there was dressed in black, the only appropriate color to wear to a funeral.

Hermione just stood there and let herself dwell in the feelings of being home, though this place felt the least bit like home right now. Everything was in its rightful place, almost as if it were a museum where you were not allowed to touch anything or that annoying alarm would go off. Something was missing. Love. Love was missing from her childhood home, and she did not like the feeling one little bit. Every time she had set foot in this house since she was a child, she was surrounded with love and warmth, but today she was encased with a cold hollow feeling. Ignoring the company of her friends, she walked past them all, and headed upstairs to her bedroom. Once she reached the top of the stairs, she looked down the dark hallway at her parents' bedroom door, but she ignored it and turned into her own bedroom. It looked the same as it had the day she left. She walked over to her bed, and sat softly on the edge, taking in her surroundings piece by piece.

"Sweetheart?" oh no, now she was hearing voices. Now she knew that she had gone completely mad. "Hermione? Are you up there sweetheart?" the voice said again.

"Grandma?" she asked quietly to herself, and then ran to the staircase. The familiar faces of her Grandma and Grandpa were staring at her from the bottom of the stairs. She flew down the stairs, and into the open arms of her grandparents as tears started to roll down her cheeks.

"Oh sweetheart," they embraced her tightly. "Everything is going to be ok sweetheart, everything is going to be alright," she continued to cry, and ignored the footsteps of her approaching friends.

"We should probably leave, don't you think?" Harry said, though he was in no hurry to go to a funeral where someone's parents had died. He was not sure if he could handle this, though he knew he needed to be there for Hermione, she was the only person who mattered today.

"We are going to need to take two cars," Hermione said as she pulled away from her Grandparents and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.

"Mione, you go with your grandparents, and I'll drive your car if you want," he smiled at her, and she just shook her head in realization of his kind gesture.

"Thanks Nick," she smiled, but it did not nearly reach her eyes.

"You have a car?" Ron said in disbelief. "Where is this car? I want to see."

"Calm down Ron," Harry placed his hand gently on his friend's shoulder and pushed him slightly. "You'll get to ride in the car in just a minute," he talked to him as if he were a little kid.

"Shut up Harry," Ron glared at the raven haired boy, "Just because you have been around cars before does not mean that I can't be excited."

"Let's go," Hermione led everyone into the garage to open the garage door, but when she saw the three cars in the garage, she dropped her eyes to the floor.

"Everything is going to be alright," Nick placed his hands on her shoulders, and kissed the top of her head. "Let's get in the car," he steered her over towards her grandparents' car which was parked and running in the driveway. "Blaise and Ginny, do you want to ride with Hermione?" he looked at the both of them who quickly walked over to the car and got in next to Hermione.

As soon as they reached the church, they all filed inside silently and sat down in the pews. Hermione sat with her grandparents, on her dad's side, in the front row, and was soon joined by her mother's parents', her uncle and aunt, and her cousin.

"Hermione," her grandparents said, as she looked at them in disbelief.

'They came,' she was shocked, 'all of them, they came.'

"Hermione," her grandmother said pulling her into a hug. "I'm sorry that we have not come sooner, we wish that we would have."

"You came," she said out loud this time. "I'm…I'm glad you came," she hugged her grandparents, her aunt, and her cousin, but was still slightly nervous about her uncle, they had never really seen eye to eye, and she was not sure how things would be between them now.

"Professor," she said looking him straight in the eye.

"Hermione," he said giving her a hug that seemed uncomfortable on both parts. "I am working on it."

"Me too," she said knowing exactly what he meant, while slightly hugging him back. This was so foreign to her, to him as well. They could not do this very long, so they pulled back almost immediately and sat down in their seats. 'That was so awkward,' Hermione thought to herself as the funeral began, and almost as quickly ended.

OOO

"Why is she hugging Professor Snape?" Ron leaned across Lavender and whispered dangerously to Harry. "She has gone completely mad!"

"I think she has," Harry replied while staring at Hermione and Professor Snape with wide eyes.

"Shit," they heard Nick whisper from beside Harry.

"What?" Harry was confused.

"That girl sitting next to Professor Snape?" he pointed, but kept his finger low so as not to draw attention to himself.

"Yeah," Harry was still very confused.

"That's Casey," he slouched down, placed his hands over his face, and groaned, though only loud enough for the people sitting next to him to hear.

"Casey?" confusion still consumed him, "Casey!" they said in realization. "You mean, Casey as in your new girlfriend Casey?"

"That's the one. God I can't believe this is happening to me," he shook his head in an attempt to rid the thoughts he was having from his mind. Throughout the funeral, Nick could not stop trying to figure out the connection between Hermione and Casey. 'It isn't normal that she would just randomly show up at some peoples' funeral, especially a muggle' funeral. God this is absolutely ridiculous!' his mind swam with thoughts of Casey and Hermione and how in the hell he had gotten himself into this kind of trouble.

OOO

It was a beautiful service; well, as beautiful as a funeral could be. They were now on their way to the cemetery, following closely and slowly behind the large black hearse, at the front of the funeral procession.

They slowly made their way to the two large holes in the ground, where there were two caskets hovering above the holes looking as if they were about to plummet at any time. They stood there silently, as the priest said a few words. People placed flowers upon the caskets, and then as everyone turned to leave, they lowered the caskets into the ground where they would stay forever. Hermione stopped quickly and removed her shoes. She handed them to her grandma, kissed her grandma and grandpa, and took off running without a word in some direction which her friends assumed was towards her house.

Running was how Hermione dealt with her problems. It made her blood start pumping, and she felt as if she were free and her problems could never catch up with her. They always caught up with her again, so she willed herself not to stop this time. She ran and ran not keeping track of how long she had been running or where she was running to. Once she ended up in the driveway to her house, she stood there staring up at the house. She seemed to have shrunk, or the house seemed to have grown as she continued to look at it.

_She had just stepped off of the bus, which dropped her off in front of her house. She was wearing a pink t-shirt with a cat on the front, a pink skirt, white socks, and pink and white tennis shoes. He hair was braided into pig tails, and he had on a large pink backpack that only contained a few papers. She had just arrived home from her first day of Kindergarten, and now she stood on the driveway staring up at her house with a large smile on her face. She took off running towards the house, and as soon as she flung the door open, "MUM!" she screamed at the top of her lungs and raced into the kitchen where she found her mother waiting with a plate of cookies and some milk. _

"_How was school today sweetheart?"_

"_I LOVED it Mum!" Hermione raced into her mother's arms and gave her had giant hug. "I can't wait until I go back tomorrow." _

_Her mother just laughed and pulled out the chair so that she could have her afternoon snack. From that day on, her mother always greeted her in the kitchen with a plate of cookies and milk, anxiously awaiting for the day's amazing stories. _

OOO

There was a solemn feeling inside the house today and it made Hermione even more depressed. The rain was pouring down from the sky in huge wet drops, which blended with the tears that continuously streamed down her face as she stepped outside to get away from all of the people. She had not been inside long after getting home from her run, but she had a hard time being with all of these people that brought back painful memories of her parents. Not that it makes it easier being outside right now. There were so many memories surrounding this house, both inside and out. She walked over to her royal blue SUV and ran her hand lightly over the hood that was covered in large water droplets. It was brand new; it was a present from her parents for her 18th birthday.

"_Mmmmm," she awoke to the smell of freshly made blueberry pancakes. "My favorite," she swung her feet to the floor and squished her toes into the plush carpet as she stretched her arms high above her head, and the hems of the legs of her red, plaid, pajama pants fell ungracefully to the floor. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes as she walked down the stairs and tiptoed across the cold hardwood floor into the kitchen where her parents and grandparents were waiting patiently for her to arrive. At her designated seat sat a stack of blueberry pancakes, which smelled delicious, and were waiting specifically for her to devour them. _

"_Good morning sweetheart," dad said as the biggest smile I had ever seen graced his face. Actually all four of them had huge smiles on their faces._

"_Are you all feeling alright today?" I asked with one eyebrow raised as I sat down and waited for them to begin their birthday ritual of singing and lighting the candle that was sticking out of the middle of my breakfast. _

"_We are fine sweetie, just excited that you are turning 18 today," Mum replied. _

"_Alright," I was still a bit curious at their odd behavior. "Can I eat this?"_

"_Oh, that's right. Let me get the matches," Mum hurried over to the drawer, and then rushed back over to the table. "Ok, everyone… Happy…"_

"_Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Hermione, happy birthday to you," my family sang to me. "Make a wish sweetie," I wished for the same thing that I did every year, which I was beginning to believe would never come true, and then I blew out the candle and dug into my blueberry pancakes. _

"_What a great way to start my birthday," I smiled and took my plate over to the sink. _

"_Who's ready for presents?" Dad said enthusiastically. _

"_Presents?" I asked confused, "Already? Isn't it a bit early for presents?" _

"_It's never to early for presents," Mum said putting her arm around my bare shoulders and leading me over to the front door with Dad, Grandma, and Grandpa in tow._

"_Why are we going outside?" they had completely thrown me off this morning, and I had no idea what they were up to. _

"_Well, that is where your present is," they are acting so strange today._

"_You all must be mad or something," I laughed and continued being escorted outside into the beautiful sunshine that warmed my bare skin instantly. _

"_Happy Birthday!" they all yelled and I stood shocked at the brand new royal blue Ford Explorer with a huge red bow tied on top of the hood. _

"_Oh my god!" I could barely believe it. "That's…that's for me?"_

"_Happy Birthday sweetheart," Dad dangled the keys in front of my face and I almost dropped them I was so shocked. I unlocked the door and hopped into the driver's seat. "Would you like to take us for a drive?"_

"_Sure," I said as everyone got in and buckled their seatbelts. The car smelled like brand new leather, there was a CD player, it seated eight people, and it was perfect. I drove around the block, without scaring anyone, and then pulled it back into the driveway, trying to avoid hitting the big red bow that dad had taken off of my new car and place in the driveway. _

"_Thank you so much!" I hugged Mum and Dad._

"_Your present from us is inside," Grandma said._

"_More presents?" I acted shocked. "What is it, my birthday?" we all laughed and walked inside. _

OOO

Hermione was completely soaked; the silky black material of her dress was sticking to every crevice of her body. Her skin was so wet that she could not even feel the rain continuously touch her skin as it repeatedly fell from the sky. She continued to run her hand lightly over the paint of her car. It was as beautiful as the day she got it. It looked exactly the same as her memories reminded her of. She was so caught up in her memories, that she did not notice the person who had walked up behind her.

"Hermione?" he put his hands gently on her shoulders, but she did not respond. "Hermione, come inside. It's freezing out here," still no response. "Mione," he whispered in her ear and felt a shiver run down her spine.

"What!" she turned around abruptly, seeing as she was startled by the company that seemed to appear out of nowhere. "Nick, you scared me."

"Sorry," he said "Is everything ok?"

"Fine," she said simply, "just thinking."

"Well, you should come inside. It's freezing out here and you are drenched," he put his arm around her shoulder and attempted to lead her inside.

"I…I don't really want to go back in there yet?" she tried to hold back her tears. "I don't think that I am ready."

"Ok," he removed his arm from around her shoulders. "Do you want me to stay out here with you?"

"No," she stared up into the sky and let the rain pour down upon her face. "I think I just need to be alone for a little while longer."

"Nick?" they both turned at the sound of the high pitched voice.

"Casey?" they both replied in unison.

"Hermione, oh it is so good to see you again," Casey rushed over to Hermione and hugged her. "I mean, despite the circumstances. Oh, how are you?'

"Look at you," Hermione said looking at her cousin's large rounded belly. "When did this happen?" Hermione and Casey had talked a few times, and had run into each other every once in a while, but never notified their families of the situation since it would not have been thought highly of.

"Over the summer on our vacation to Hawaii," Nick visibly cringed as Casey spoke.

"Oh, this happened in Hawaii huh?" Hermione glanced at Nick cautiously, and saw the pained expression on his face.

"Yeah," Casey slipped her arm around Nick's waist and his body stiffened at the contact. "Nick and I met at a party while we were there, and now we are going to get married as soon as he graduates."

"Oh," Hermione paled. 'Too much, too much, too much' her mind screamed as she became very overwhelmed with emotions of hurt and sadness. This was too much to handle today with her parents funeral and everything. "It's your baby?" she stared at Nick with sadness and hurt written across her face.

"How do you two know each other?" Casey asked, not noticing the tension between the couple.

"We used to date," Hermione said plainly, "but he broke up with me because he met someone on his summer vacation to Hawaii."

"Oh, how long ago did this happen?" Casey asked not getting the hint.

"You broke up with me because you slept with my COUSIN!" anger had taken over her emotions and her outburst seemed to frighten Casey. "No wait, because you got my cousin PREGNANT?"

"Mione, please calm down," Nick tried to comfort her by placing his hand on her shoulder, but this was the wrong action seeing as she slapped him. "I had no idea that she was your cousin," he placed his hand on his stinging cheek. "I'm so sorry."

"You had a girlfriend?" Casey asked, still a bit confused at the whole situation.

"Hermione I thought that we had gotten past this," Nick ignored his fiancé's question.

"That was before I found out that it was with my cousin!"

"It doesn't change anything Hermione," he was exasperated. "I'm sorry! I didn't know that Casey was your cousin and I was drunk when it happened, but I am trying to be the bigger person and do the right thing. We had finally become friends again and I don't think that I can handle losing you AGAIN!"

"I am over the fact that you cheated on me, slept with someone else, got some girl pregnant, but my cousin?" they seemed to have completely of forgotten that Casey was standing there next to them listening to their entire conversation.

"I DIDN'T KNOW THAT SHE WAS YOUR COUSIN!" he screamed in anger.

"SHE IS 15 YEARS OLD!" she screamed back in a high pitched voice.

"…" he had nothing to say to her statement. It was not something that he was proud of, but it was a true statement.

"Can I say something?" Casey's quite voice attempted to break through the angry barrier that surrounded the fuming couple.

"WHAT?" they both turned and screamed at her at precisely the same exact moment.

"First, I had no idea that he had a girlfriend when we met over the summer, I swear Hermione. If I had know, I would have never even have tried to get involved with him," she completely ignored the fact that they had both just screamed at her, and she could at least sound smart when the situation called for it. "Second, there is not much that can change this situation seeing as I will be having this baby in about 2 months. If I could change the basics of this situation I would, I would have never have gotten involved with a boy that was involved with someone else, especially not with my cousin, but I love him very much and I love my baby. I need him and we have already made plans for our life together. I can't do this without him Hermione. Please forgive him, please," she almost pleaded with her cousin, whom was having a hard time trying to control her emotions.

"…"she was speechless, but she could not control the silent tear that rolled down her cheek. She knew that there was nothing she could do to change the situation, 'If only I had that time turner,' she thought to herself, but quickly shook the thought out of her head. 'STOP IT! THERE IS NOTHING THAT YOU CAN DO TO FIX THIS! YOU JUST HAVE TO DEAL WITH THIS! STOP IT!' her mind screamed, and she gritted her teeth painfully in an attempt to keep herself from yelling out loud. "Do you love her?" she whispered in a last attempt to redeem herself. A tear rolled down her cheek, disguised by the raindrops that continuously poured down from the sky and onto her rosy cheeks.

"Yes," he had never actually said that out loud before, and it shocked him. He had never said that to Casey, and he sure as hell had never admitted it to himself. "I do," he said quietly, more as a realization to himself than to inform anyone else of his feelings at that particular moment.

OOO

Hermione's grandparents wondered where she was. It had been hours since she had ran away from the cemetery. They were stressing out about the not knowing where Hermione was, as well as having a house full of guests who gave their apologies every two seconds. Her friends were getting worried also. No one had seen her since the cemetery, and they hoped that she hadn't wondered off too far.

OOO

'Why am I dwelling on this so much?' her mind wondered. 'There is not anything that I can do. I don't even know why I am trying so hard to make a realization out of this. I don't know why I care so much. I am over him, I am over this. We were friends as of yesterday, and my life has headed in a new direction,' her mind raced with something to say. "I am over this."

"What?" Nick asked confused.

"Huh?" had she said that last comment out loud?

"You…you are over this?"

'Is he angry or just confused?' she asked herself.

"After this whole ordeal of screaming and yelling at me for the past fifteen minutes, you say that you are over this?" angry, he was definitely sounding angry at the moment.

"I can't change what has happened, and I don't really even think that I want to," she was staring at her feet. "I got past this yesterday, but finding out that it was my cousin that you got pregnant, just kind of caught me off guard. I mean, to think that it was actually not only someone that I knew, but someone in my very own family just sort of pushed my buttons in the wrong way," she would not look at either of them, she was too embarrassed. "I'm sorry for the way I acted, I hope that you two are very happy together, and I hope that we can all continue to be friends," the truth in her statement lacked enthusiasm, but she meant it no matter what they thought. She did wish to continue her friendship with Nick, and she of course hoped that she and Casey would be as ok as they were before she found out, but she could not stand there and face this situation any longer. She walked away, quickly trying to free herself from the information that she had just received, she did this while continuously watching her feet so as not to make eye contact with anyone.

She was soaking wet. The water that had accumulated in the fabric of her clothing and the strands of her hair, were now causing a puddle to form on the hardwood floor of the entryway of her parents' house. She continued to stare at her feet, and ignored the many people whom were gathered in all parts of the house.

"Hermione?" a gentle voice called her, only catching her attention when a hand placed itself gently on her chin and lifted it upwards. "How are you holding up?"

"Everything is crashing down around me," her eyes would not meet his. "I don't know what to do," she stared over his shoulder at an invisible spot on the wall behind him.

"I know it doesn't feel like it, but everything will be ok," she finally looked into his steel grey eyes, "I promise."

She leaned her body against him, and took deep calming breaths. He held her gently against him, and slowly rubbed his hand up and down her spine, and they stood there in silence for a few minutes, before she spoke.

"How do you know?" he was right with his first statement, it didn't feel like it was going to be alright. "How do you know that everything will be alright?"

"It will Hermione, it will," he continued to hold her to him, he definitely felt more comfortable dealing with this right now, unlike the last time he had been put in this situation. "I felt like my life was going to be in shambles for the rest of my life after my father died, but things eventually got better," he tried to stop his mouth from rambling, but he had lost control. "If I had not believed my cousin telling me that things would get better, I would not have changed my ways and I would have been stuck in the black hole that was sucking my life deeper and deeper into a world of darkness, and that would have been a tragedy because my life would have never gone in the direction it did. I would have missed out on so many things, mainly standing right here with you like this, and there is no other place that I would want to be right now."

**I am SO SO SO SO SO sorry that it has taken so long. It has been insane. I was trying to graduate, then I was looking for a job, then my computer broke and I had to wait for another computer to try and get my files recovered (thankfully it was possible), then I was doing more job searching (continuously) but I was finally able to finish. Please forgive me. I hope that you will all review so I know what you all thought about the chapter. It has been a long time since I started writing so I hope that it all seemed to fit and work well together. Let me know! I hope that you all enjoyed, and I hope to be able to get a new chapter up SOON, but I can't promise you anything. Thanks again guys for reviewing, I really appreciate all of your feed back. You are all totally awesome! Adios!**


	19. Free Yourself From Thoughts

**Chapter 19 – Free Yourself From the Thoughts That Haunt You. **

"HERMIONE!" a high pitched voice screeched from behind him, in his ear, and the girl in his arms pulled away abruptly.

"Hey Meg," Hermione said with a hint of sadness apparent in her voice.

"Oh honey I am so sorry," the girl embraced Hermione around the neck, and she put her arms around the girls waist, since the girl was taller. "Who is that boy? Have you already moved on from Nick? Oh my, he is cute!" she added with a little squeal at the end.

"Him?" Hermione pulled away from the girl, and pointed over her shoulder in his direction without even a glance. "No, that is just Malfoy. We're just friends," his heart sank, but he tried not to let it show on his face.

"Malfoy?" the girl looked puzzled, "haven't you said something about a Malfoy be…WAIT! You mean, that kid that was always so horrible to you?" she had slightly lowered her voice so as to be discreet.

"Yup that's the guy, but he has changed this year," she shrugged her shoulders and the two girls walked away from him and into the other room.

'Why is it so incomprehensible to her that someone might think that we are together?' his mind screamed, but of course no one could give him any sort of answer. 'WHAT IN THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ME?' this Hermione thing just kept making him crazier with every encounter.

OOO

"So, he has changed, he is hot, he doesn't treat you badly anymore, he is hot, he is single, and oh did I mention that he is hot? Meaning that you're not dating him WHY?" Megan continued to ask her questions about the blond headed boy that she was previously with.

"Because he is…well he's…" she could not seem to form the words to why she continuously refused to date Malfoy. "Well, he is just Malfoy ok!" that was the best that she could come up with.

"Hermione!" Megan stopped, grabbed her shoulders, and looked directly into her best friend's eyes with pure shock. "That is NOT an answer! You like him, I can tell so don't even try to deny it, and you are just making up excuses."

"Shut up, I am not making up excuses!" she looked down at her feet in embarrassment, because what Megan was saying could possibly be true.

"You didn't deny that you liked him though," she replied in a sing-song voice, as she turned around and sauntered away from her with a smug look on her face.

"Shut up Megan!" she said, exasperated as she stomped off towards the retreating back of her best friend. They rounded the corner into the kitchen, where many people were standing around talking and eating finger foods.

"You know 'Mione, if he has changed, you may want to give him a chance," Hermione just stared at her, "It will probably help you get over Nick a lot quicker anyways, and who says you can't have a little fun while doing so," those words ran through her mind over and over again all day, as she walked through the party like a zombie.

OOO

People slowly started to filter out of the house, leaving behind their sympathies for the family. All that was left were her friends and her family members, all of them. Her mom's family walked up to her on their way out, and gave her hugs.

"Hermione dear, please let us know if you need anything at all. We will see you soon, we promise," her grandmother said sincerely, holding her at an arms length after embracing her.

"Goodbye Professor," Hermione said to Snape before he left. They did not hug, seeing as the last time they tried, it seemed way too weird.

"Come and find me at school if you need anything," he slightly smiled. "We will work on this," he pointed between the two of them. "Goodbye."

"Ok," she smiled slightly, though it seemed a bit forced, "Goodbye," she shut the door when they all left, and turned around to see all of her friends standing behind her. Looks of confusion, worry, and love graced their faces, but all of them had a hint of confusion somewhere.

"What is going on?" Ron finally blurted out.

"Ron," Lavender lightly smacked him on the arm, scolding him.

"What are you talking about Ronald?"

"You? Professor Snape? Nick's girlfriend?" he threw his hands up, "What in the world is going on with you lately? I just can't stand it anymore. There are so many things we don't know about you, and I want to know and understand right NOW!" he stomped his foot.

"RON!" everyone yelled at him in anger, as Hermione broke out into tears and ran upstairs and into her room.

"Look what you did now you stupid git," Draco growled angrily, and pushed past him and ran up the stairs two at a time and burst into Hermione's bedroom after knocking as a sort of warning.

OOO

"Go away," she sobbed into her pillow without even looking to see who had entered.

"No," he was not going to let her sit up here by herself and cry because of what Ron said.

"NOW!" she yelled without any emphasis.

"Just because Ron is a git, doesn't mean that you can push everyone away," he stood rooted next to her bed, with no intention of leaving anytime soon.

"I'm not pushing everyone away," she mumbled, as she continued to hiccup and sob into her pillow, "I just want to be left alone."

"No you don't," he said as if he could read her every thought.

"How would you know?" she was a bit curious as to what he could possibly have to say about what she was feeling at that very moment.

"You just want everyone to automatically be able to understand your every feeling and thought without having to ask any questions, so that you don't have to relive what has happened to you by explaining it to everyone. You say you want to be left alone, but you only want to be left alone, because you are the one person who understands all of your thoughts, and the one person that you know won't ask you useless questions like: What's wrong? Are you ok? Is there anything I can do? How can I help? Everyone else in the world is just trying to help you, but by helping you they are making the things going on in your head worse because they are making you relive every excruciating detail of the things that have happened to you lately. But you don't want to be left alone do you? You don't want to be left alone with your thoughts, because they only keep replaying in your mind, because there is nothing else around to take your mind off of them. So you need to choose which of those options is the lesser of two evils. Do you sit up here by yourself, or do you go back downstairs with your friends who just want you to be ok? You have to decide for yourself, because I can't make that decision for you, and neither can anyone else. That is what you are feeling and that is what the dilemma is in your head."

"NO," she said quickly, without a reply from him, allowing what he had said to settle into her brain for a moment. "How…how did you…how did you know that?"

"You forget," he sat down on her bed, "I went through this whole death of a parent thing. I know that you don't like me, you don't want to be friends with me, and you don't want to be around me, but I like you, I want to be friends with you, and I always want to be around you, plus I do know a thing or two about losing a parent. I lived this exact same scenario in my life at the beginning of the summer Hermione. I know the types of feelings that are going through your heart and mind; I know that if you let them consume you, you will be the most unhappy person in the world, and I know that you need to find a way to move along or this is going to completely eat your away. I wish that you would just listen to me and let me help you, but you obviously don't want me to help you so I guess I will leave you alone now. If you decide that you actually want to listen to something that I have to say, you know where to find me," his frustration seemed to increasingly rise as he spoke. He stood up, walked out of her bedroom without another word, and clicked the door closed quickly behind him before she could say anything else, leaving her behind to think about everything that he just said.

Draco went and found his bag in the room he had been "assigned" to, changed into his black and green plaid pajama pants, walked downstairs into the kitchen, grabbed a beer out of the fridge, and joined the others on the couch, all of whom had already changed into pajamas, were drinking heavily, and were watching _Signs_. All of the couples were cuddled up together, including Drew and Megan, whom had decided to stay behind for a while. It disgusted Draco to watch all of the happy couples together, it always did, but he held it inside pretty well. Between his last encounter with Claire, and the increasing tension that he had to constantly deal with between Hermione and himself, life with girls sucked! Draco tried to look around the room without throwing up, and quickly found the last free spot in an overstuffed chair, giving him plenty of space since he did not have a girlfriend, unlike the rest of the guys in the room, not that he was bitter or anything. No one said anything to him, since they were completely enthralled with the movie on top of making out and cuddling with their boyfriends or girlfriends. BLAH! Was what went through his mind, as he looked around, seeing all of these couples surrounding him. Why did love have to follow him around every corner? It's like it was haunting him.

He enjoyed the movie, it wasn't scary, so it annoyed him when the girls would jump and burry their faces in the crooks of their boyfriend's necks when something jumped out or came around the corner. Suddenly, he heard Hermione moving around upstairs, but he tried not to pay attention to her and focus on the movie instead.

'She'll come downstairs when she's ready,' the water turned on in a heavy stream, but then quit after a few minutes, with no sound of movement from Hermione. 'She must be in the bath or something,' worrying about her was in his nature today, and every other day since they had become friends this year. He knew how hard it was for him the day of his father's funeral.

_The party was raging inside, well as raging as a gathering after a funeral could be. There were a lot of people filling Malfoy Manor, making it the last place in the world that he wanted to be at the moment. Instead of standing around talking to people that he didn't even like, and hearing fake sympathies from people who felt that they needed to be here to keep their status in life, he decided to take up his old childhood pastime of laying in the grass and watch the shapes of the clouds shift against the brilliant blue background of the sky. He tried to decipher the shapes, before they shifted and formed into something else, it was a never ending process, which he never got tired of._

"_Hey man," Blaise laid down in the grass next to him, clasping his hand behind his head, and crossing his ankles. "Seen anything good today?"_

"_There is a dragon up there, that hasn't changed too much since I saw him," that wasn't something that happened often. _

"_How are you doing?" Blaise waited a few minutes before asking the question. He knew he shouldn't have asked the dreaded question, but it just sort of slipped out. "I mean, I know…"_

"_Alright," Draco interrupted him. "I mean, I know that my father died, but I'm not all that sad. I don't know if it just hasn't sunk in or not, but it makes me feel a little lost in the world, you know? Like I'm not sure what I am supposed to be doing right now or anything." _

"_Yeah," he sighed._

"_Hey there Cus," he had known of this girl since he was young, but her family was the exact opposite of what his Father wanted for him. "How's the sky? Seen anything interesting so far?" maybe he could get along better with her than he thought._

"_Hey Amanda," he never actually looked over at the petite girl, though he felt Blaise's eyes burning through him to see her. It wasn't everyday that a new family member showed up in the wizarding world that had been shunned from the family ages ago, not that it was her fault or anything, but still. The two friends had been fascinated by Draco's long lost cousin since they first heard an argument between Draco's parents about inviting the girl's family for a holiday when he was 5. He tried to contact her ages ago, but he never heard anything back from her, his Father had been intercepting his owls for years. It really sucked to have your mail searched, because most of it never ended up in your hands. "Nothing too interesting up in the sky today, just sort of watching as it all moves by so quickly."_

"_Yeah, I haven't seen to many interesting things in my lifetime while watchin' the sky, especially when my mind is focused on other things," she laid down on the grass next to Draco, and smoothed out her knee length black skirt, and pulled down her black halter top, which had rose up in the process of moving around. "So are you ready to come and spend the summer with me?" she threw out there to try and break the ice. _

"_YOU ARE LEAVING!" Blaise seemed a bit ticked off. "I can't believe you are leaving for a whole summer. Why didn't you tell me? You are coming back right?" _

"_Mum just told me last night," he let out the deep breath that he had been holding in, "she made me pack up all of the stuff that I would be taking with me. She needs a break or something and she doesn't want me around while she does so," he was a bit perturbed, but now that he had actually spoken with his cousin, maybe things wouldn't be so bad. "And yes I'm coming back; we still have school to finish up with." _

"_I can't believe you're leaving" it said more to himself than anyone else._

"_Sorry you have to leave your friends," Amanda said sincerely. "I promise we'll have fun though, you get to learn the ropes of learning a real Californian life style." _

"_Is it really that much different?" _

"_Well, first thing we have to do when we get there, is fix your style," she gave him a disgusted look, "I can not been seen around you in your wizarding clothes, and you are most definitely not dressing like most wizards would in the Muggle world."_

"_I have to live in the Muggle world!" he was astonished. _

"_Don't even start with me!" she bit back, "You will not use the foul language towards my friends that I know you use towards muggle borns, it will not be tolerated do you hear me?" she had sat up and was pointing her finger directly at his face. _

"_Yes ma'am," he was a bit scared of her at the moment._

"_Good," she went back to lying down, and they were all silent until they were called to come back inside the house. _

"_Goodbye Draco," his mother gave him a kiss on the top of his head, before she pushed him out the door to leave for the summer. Everyone had already left, and with the way his mother was acting, he was glad to be leaving. He would be able to clear his head, or sink deeper into depression than he was already aware of. _

"_Goodbye Mother," she shut the door, and he turned around to get into the car that was waiting for him. His Uncle was driving, his Aunt was in the front seat, and Amanda was sitting next to him in the back seat as they drove to the airport, where he would begin his transformation to the new Draco. _

_**You feel like a candle in a hurricane  
Just like a picture with a broken frame  
Alone and helpless  
Like you've lost your fight  
But you'll be alright**_

The music drifted through the hallways, when a soft voice flowed to his ears from inside of Hermione's bedroom as he walked past the door. "What were you thinking about?"

"Nothing," he replied dully, stopping dead in his tracks outside the door, but never looking in.

"It didn't look like nothing," she continued, even though he refused to enter her room. "You sat down there in the chair for a long time with a glazed look on your face."

"Nothing that you should concern yourself with," he went to turn around and head to his bedroom for the night when she stopped him again. The music was soft, but it was still there, and he tried to listen to the words.

_**Cause when push comes to shove  
You taste what you're made of  
You might bend, till you break  
Cause its all you can take  
On your knees you look up  
Decide you've had enough  
You get mad you get strong  
Wipe your hands shake it off**_

"Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"About?"

"Can you please just come in here so that we can talk for a minute?" she was very quite. "I promise not to cry, yell, hit, or anything along those lines."

"Whatever makes you happy," was all he said before he entered her room, trying to look anywhere but directly at the sad, but beautiful girl in front of him. The only light in her room was the soft yellow glow of her bedside lamp, and she sat at the head of her bed with her knees pulled tight to her chest, her arms wrapped around her legs, and her chin resting on her knees. He stood there wringing his hands awkwardly, not sure what she expected him to do.

"Please sit," she patted her bed by her feet. She was wearing green plaid pajama pants, with a smaller plaid pattern than his own pants, and a black wife beater. Her long wet hair hung heavily in thick, wavy curls around her small body. He sat down next to her feet, but kept his gaze on his hands, which had clasped together nervously in his lap. "I'm sorry," she stated simply. "I know that you probably hate me right now, you have probably hated me for the past few days, or weeks, or months, or,"

"Hermione," he interrupted her rambling, "I get it."

"Sorry, I just mean you probably hate me, seeing as I was so awful to you, but I am sorry," she continued to rest her chin on her knees, but looked off into the distance somewhere "I don't know what else to do but to tell you that I am sorry Draco. I just don't," she placed her forehead on her knees, and willed herself not to cry, even though tears threatened to spill over.

_**Then you Stand, Then you stand  
Life's like a novel  
With the end ripped out  
The edge of a canyon  
With only one way down  
Take what you're given before its gone  
Start holding on, keep holding on**_

"I forgive you," was all he said after a few short moments of silence. He said it loud enough for only her to hear, and it took all of his strength not to look at her.

"Why?" she couldn't fathom why he could forgive her so easily. She had been so awful to him, and she just didn't understand why he could push that aside and forget so quickly.

"Because I know that you are going through a tough time right now, and," he hesitated with what he would say next, "and well, that's what friends do for each other," he couldn't bring himself to tell her how he felt about her. It was just too much for one day, especially for this day. "I mean look at our past Hermione, look at all of the horrible things we have done to each other. Mostly things that I did and you were just fighting back, but look at all of the horrible exchanges that have happened between us over the years. You forgave me pretty quickly for 6 years of torture, and I forgive you for only a short time. We need to move past this, you need to move past the anger in your heart, and I want to help you if you will let me."

"I would like that," she smiled slightly, and then repeated her original questions, "What were you thinking about downstairs?" Curiosity always seemed to get the better of her.

"The day of my father's funeral," he said knowing that she wouldn't let it go until he told her, even though he really did not want to talk about the specifics of it with her right now.

"Oh," she looked back down at her knees, "I'm sorry. I am sure that it was hard for you to come to the funeral today with everything that happened."

"It isn't your fault," he finally looked at her, but she was not looking in his direction. "It was actually talking to you earlier that made me think about what sort of things I would say, and that just happened to cross my mind."

"What happened that day?" she may as well be a cat, because she was afraid that curiosity was going to kill her in this situation. "I mean, if you don't mind me asking. You just seemed to be in such a far off world for such a long time, you looked quite pensive."

**_Every time you get up  
And get back in the race  
One more small piece of you  
Starts to fall into place  
Ooohhh_**

"It was completely different from the funeral today," their eyes met briefly, but then both looked away as quickly as their eyes had met. "Not a single person was there that had any real feelings for my father. They were all there to pay fake respects to someone they thought that they needed to," he stopped for a minute to gather his thoughts; "It shouldn't be about needing to come, it should be about wanting to come, you know?" he didn't expect her to answer, which she didn't verbally, she only nodded her head. "Well, there actually was one family that was there who truly wanted to be there. My Aunt, and her family, the one that had been disowned by my family, they were there. Oh, and Blaise was there, but that was more for my sake than anything else. The funeral was a sullen event. We stood around the grave, they slowly placed him in the ground, no one showed any emotion except for my Mum, my Aunt, and my Cousin, and then we all left to go back to Malfoy Manor, where people handed out fake sympathy to my Mother and myself, so basically as soon as I walked through the front door, I walked out the back and stayed outside with Blaise most of the time. My cousin joined us, and so I got to know her, seeing as we had never met before. Finally I was called inside to say goodbye to people I didn't even like, and then the fantastic day ended by my Mother pushing me out the door to live with my cousin in California for the summer," his bitterness about the whole situation became very apparent by the end of his description. Hermione had tears glistening in her eyes, as she reached out her hand and placed it on his arm.

"I am so sorry," she had never understood what it was like to not feel loved by other people until that very moment. She could see the hurt and betrayal flash through his eyes as he looked at her.

"It's no big deal."

"No, It is a big deal," she uncurled her self and sat next to him on the bed with her legs dangling over the edge. "Your Father passed away, and there were 4 or 5 people out of many that were there for you."

_**Cause when push comes to shove  
You taste what you're made of  
You might bend, till you break  
Cause its all you can take  
On your knees you look up  
Decide you've had enough  
You get mad you get strong  
Wipe your hands shake it off**_

"You have it good don't you?" he continued to stare at her hand, which she had not yet removed from his arm.

"So do you," she grabbed his hand and placed it between hers. "Look at all of the people who love you," he had trouble thinking of any, before she started to rattle them off. "Blaise, Ginny, Harry, Pansy, Millicent, your aunt, your uncle, your cousin," the list continued, and he realized that she was right, "and me," his ears perked up. "We all care about you so much Draco, and I see now that that is what you were trying to tell me before. You have to look to the ones who love you to get you through the hard times or you will never come out of it alive. Look at what your cousin did for you. You are a completely different person than you used to be, because you let the real you out and you are happy now. I just need to find that person in my life who will allow me to bring the real me out," she reached her arms around his neck and squeezed him tight, followed by a light kiss on the cheek. "Thank you Draco, you really are a great friend."

"You're welcome," his heart sank right there and then. 'Great friend,' he thought to himself, 'That is all I will ever be to her, a great friend.' "Goodnight Hermione."

"Goodnight Draco," she kissed him again on the cheek before he got up and left the room.

_**Then you Stand, Then you stand  
Life's like a novel  
With the end ripped out  
The edge of a canyon  
With only one way down  
Take what you're given before its gone  
Start holding on, keep holding on**_

He did not sleep well that night. Visions of Hermione danced through his head, and it made his stomach turn, and on top of that, it aroused him to no end. She made his life painful in more ways than only tonight. First she had told him that she loved him, and then she said that he was a great friend, and after all of that confusing mess, then she had to go and look so damn sexy in those Slytherin colors that turned him on so much, but that he would never inform anyone of, ever!

**_Every time you get up  
And get back in the race  
One more small piece of you  
Starts to fall into place  
Ooohhh_**

OOO

She worried about him. She sat in the dark kitchen on a barstool, watching all of her friends from a distance. Ginny was cuddled up with Blaise, Ron and Lavender were making out heavily on the floor, Harry and Parvati were cuddled up on the couch, Megan and Drew were cuddled up and were kissing each other every once in a while. Nick had left to go home and visit his own family for the night, and Draco was sitting there all alone in her favorite overstuffed chair, holding the decorative pillow lazily in his arms, and staring off into space. His face was brow was scrunched up in concentration, his lips were tightly pressed together in a thin line, and his eyes were slightly narrowed. The look on his face tonight as he sat there watching the movie, made him seem so sad, but angry, and so very far away. He was in a place that he didn't seem to ever want to have to go back to. She had been watching him closely, as the words that he had spoken to her earlier that night repeated in her head over and over again. She did like him, she did want to be friends with him, and she did want to spend time with him, but could he really possibly be able to help her? Well, maybe he is just what she needs in her life, a good boy who is sweet, generous, and is most definitely, as Megan put it of coarse, hot!

**Hello my lovely and faithful readers who have stuck with me even though it takes me forever to update. (BAD AUTHOR!) So, I decided to read through my entire story again because I was starting to lose my momentum and I felt like lately I had been writing a completely different story than I started with. So, after reading all 18 previous chapters I feel like I might be back on track. I really do hope that you will all review and let me know what you think and if you think there is anything I need to be doing to make this better. I greatly appreciate all of you who review, but I would love it if more people gave me feedback on the how they think the story is going. Well, I hope that you liked this chapter, I feel a little bit better about this story again. I don't own Harry Potter or anything in the story except for a few of the characters and the storyline. Oh, and the song in this chapter is _Stand_ by Rascal Flatts. Let me know what you think of this one and I'll try to get another one out soon! **


	20. The End of the Beginning

**Chapter 20 – The End of the Beginning **

It felt so real. He watched as pieces of his life gracefully flew through the air, as if they were small crystal balls, as he juggled them. Everything was peaceful and life was happy, until he lost control and each piece came crashing to the ground and shattered into pieces. They always fell at the same point each night. He always lost control when it came to their "relationship."

"Damn!" he cursed at the fact that he never felt satisfied after that dream. He always knew how it ended, with his life in tiny pieces smashed against the cold stone floor. Sad and depressing, why couldn't he get past this?

It would take her a while, he knew that, but he didn't realize how hard it would be to give her the space she needed to get her life back in order. It had been a week since her parents' funeral, and she was still in her own very sad world. He wasn't even sure she enjoyed doing homework anymore.

She was a complete mystery to him. He had come to know and love her. Granger of all people was the one his heart had found as a match. As the over used saying goes, "If someone had told me a few years ago that I would fall in love with her, I would have beaten them to a bloody pulp!"

"Fallen in love with whom?" crap, he hadn't realized that she was upstairs, and he surely hadn't meant to say that out loud!

"No one!" he shouted a bit too quickly and a bit too loudly, as he jumped up from his place on the couch.

"You're not going to get away that easily," she flopped down next to him on the couch, pulling him back down with her, while wearing those very tight soccer clothes again.

He was sure she wasn't going to let this go very easily, but he was glad to see her out of her room at a time other than during class.

"You can't just talk about the person you have fallen in love with when someone else is in the room and not expect them to ask about it," she put her hand on his leg and spoke animatedly, "Now who is this girl? Maybe I could set you up with her," his heart sunk, she wanted to set him up with someone? He wanted to say 'it's you! I love you!' and then kiss her, but he remembered that he needed to give her space to heal. She didn't love him and he needed to keep himself in check.

"Um…" he knew she would never let it go so he had to come up with a name quickly, 'Who could I say? Who could I say?'

'He is taking an abnormally long time to say her name. I hope it's me, I hope it's me. WAIT! What am I thinking? Draco and me? Not these thoughts again! I…' her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by his answer.

OOO

"I'm worried about Hermione!" Ginny said during the middle of dinner. Harry, Ron, Lavender, and Parvati all looked up at her suspiciously and stared at her encouraging her to elaborate. "I mean, she barely eats, and she rarely comes out of her room she doesn't hang out with us anymore. I'm worried. Aren't you worried?" she babbled and looked at them with wide eyes.

"She just needs time Ginny," Harry went back to eating his food, "I mean, her parents died, it takes a while to get over something like that," his voice was muffled since his mouth was full of food.

"Gross, I thought only Ron ate like that," Ginny was disgusted and looked down at her plate.

"HEY!" Ron said with his mouth full.

"See," she pointed at her brother.

"Yeah, alright," he continued to shovel food into his mouth.

"I guess you're right though Harry, but shouldn't we try to be there for her? Shouldn't we go and see her or something?"

"We are going to her room after dinner to study with Draco tonight if you wanted to come with us," Lavender chimed in.

"Sure," she had stopped eating, "what are you studying for?"

"Snape's big test on Monday," Parvati said glumly.

"Fun," she replied sarcastically.

"Yeah," they said in unison, "right."

"Ready?" Harry said to everyone when they had all finished eating, and they stood up slinging their bags over their shoulders and walked out of the Great Hall.

They made small talk with each other as they navigated their way to the Head's dormitory. The walk seemed longer this time for some reason, probably because they had not had many real conversations with Hermione since they came back from her parents' funeral. Not that they hadn't tried or anything, she had just been distant for the past few months, if they hadn't have known better or actually been friends with her, they would have thought that she was blowing them off. Finally their journey had ended and they reached the portrait leading to the Head's dorm. Harry knocked on the door loudly until he realized that it was already open. He led the group inside but stopped suddenly when he realized that they had just walked into an awkward situation.

OOO

Nick and Blaise ate lunch early and headed to Draco's to get started on studying for this test which they both knew was going to kill their class marks. Blaise and Nick seemed to become closer friends over the past few months, and Blaise was interested to know about Hermione's "dark past." He truly enjoyed this exciting Hermione that he had heard so much about and hoped that she would come out to play more often and soon. He knew her friends had a hard time believing that Hermione was wild, but he thought of something that someone had told him once, "It's always the quiet ones," that definitely fit Hermione.

"So, how long have you and Hermione actually known each other?" he was genuinely curious.

"Since we were about 10."

"Has she always been hot?"

"Yeah, but she sure has gotten hotter over the years," Nick had gotten used to Blaise's questioning. He was constantly interested in Hermione's past.

"DUDE! OPEN THE DOOR!" Blaise yelled at the Head's portrait. The door magically opened, Nick had actually whispered the password, and an oblivious Blaise headed inside while Nick followed closely behind.

"Well, well, well," Blaise leaned up against the wall, crossed his arms across his chest and noticed everyone else had walked in right after they had, "look what we have here. Thank Merlin you finally decided to come to your senses; we have been waiting for you to get it together.

OOO

Hermione was glad she decided to leave her room today. She had been held up in there for two months, and she was ready for a change. There wasn't anything she could do to bring back her parents, so she decided that she needed to celebrate their lives instead of morn them any longer. Her life was about to change, she wasn't sure how it would change, but she could tell a change was coming. Currently she was sitting next to Draco, prying information about the love of his life from him, and he didn't seem to be giving it up very easily.

"You," he was staring at her.

"Ha ha, very funny! If you don't want to give me the real answer, you don't have to, but just know…I will get it out of you somehow," she smiled at him and walked back up to her room.

"CRAP!" he yelled, he didn't want her to go back up into her room. "WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?" That was the last thing he wanted her to do, and where in the hell did that answer come from…his plan was to say Pansy, yeah he knew that was unbelievable seeing as how they ended last time, but he surely had not planned on his answer being "you"! Merlin he was an idiot! Now he had driven her back into depression and the comfort of her own room!

"What's with all the yelling?" he watched her walk back downstairs, focusing on the tight jeans and an emerald green tank-top she was now wearing, when he realized she had only went back upstairs to change. "What? I only went upstairs to change, seeing as what I was wearing was probably not appropriate seeing as it was so little," she noticed he was staring at her clothing.

"I've seen you in less," he resorted to his old sarcastic ways.

"Very funny," she pouted and flopped down on the couch beside him once again.

"What?" the innocent look on his face made her laugh, "It's true."

"Only because you suck into the bathroom while I was in there," she smirked.

"Well if we didn't have to share a bathroom then it might not have been a problem," his smirk rivaled hers. There faces seemed to get closer towards each other while they spoke.

"Well, if you would have been paying attention, it wouldn't have been a problem," their faces were about an inch apart by now.

"Well, it's a good thing I wasn't paying attention then, or I might not have seen everything you have to offer to the world," her smirk had disappeared and a shocked look replaced it. Before she could say anything, he their lips touched gently.

It became harder to pull away as the friction increased between them, "what are we doing?" she moaned slightly and put her hand on his leg.

"We shouldn't be doing this," his hand moved to her cheek and he gently stroked her soft skin with his thumb. Before he could think about pulling away, they both jerked apart and stared at the doorway.

"Well, well, well," Blaise smirked as their friends filed into their common room, "look what we have here. Thank Merlin you finally decided to come to your senses; we have been waiting for you to get it together."

"What?" Draco snapped his head to stare at her as she shrieked in protest.

He was now questioning whether or not he imagined her participation in the kiss. 'I'm not crazy! She was as heated about that kiss as I was!' he protested inside his head of course, because the goons at his door would never let him live it down. "So, everyone ready to study?"

"Yeah," Blaise and Nick chuckled as everyone sat down in the common room.

000

"So, everyone ready for the exam tomorrow?" a sarcastic smile formed on Blaise's lips and everyone laughed. They had been studying for hours, and the clock now said 8 o'clock. "I could use a drink."

"You can always use a drink," Draco laughed and stood up to get everyone a round, "but we probably shouldn't be drinking before a test."

"One won't hurt," everyone stared a Hermione in shock. "What? It isn't the beginning of the year anymore. You all know that I'm not what you always thought, so give me a break." She walked over to help Draco get drinks for everyone.

Their one beer turned into a party, which helped everyone relax a bit before tomorrow. Draco turned on the music and bodies began to sway. Before long, the room was heated up and sweaty bodies were grinding together. Ron and Lavender were snogging heavily as always, Harry and Parvati were kissing each other gently as their bodies molded together, and then, as she turned around during her dancing, she almost collided with Draco, as he wrapped his arms around her waist to keep her from falling. They looked deep into each others eyes, and he broke the silence.

"Were you shocked by what happened between us earlier?" he wanted a real answer.

There was a deafening pause. The music faded away and he continued to stare at her as she tried to formulate an answer. She wasn't sure what to say, but she did know that she was shocked by his question. She wanted to say 'No, I have wanted it to happen for so long and was glad that it finally did,' but she couldn't, she couldn't even say no!

"Yeah, I get it. I'm sorry I forgot to give you space," he turned around frustrated and she almost fell when he let her go because of her lack of concentration for standing.

"Wait!" she grabbed his wrist, but her hands were sweating so profusely that he slipped from her fingertips. "DRACO WAIT!" this time everyone turned and looked at her. He was unhappy, she could tell, but she needed to do this now or she knew that she would never have enough courage. "No, I was not shocked! I was glad it happened," she walked towards him slowly as she spoke. "No one has ever made me feel like you do. I have wanted to tell you this for a long time, but I was scared," she was about a foot away from the blond who was standing there staring at her with his arms crossed across his chest. "I know I'm not the most outspoken when it comes to my feelings for you," there was a loud snort from behind her, "Not then, I mean now you arse!" she glared at Ron.

"What?" he threw his hands up in defense, "you were the one who said you weren't outspoken towards Malfoy!"

"Whatever," she turned back to face a questioning Draco. "What I'm trying to say is that since the beginning of this year, things have changed between us. I am glad that they have because I don't know if I could have gone on hating you anymore," she put her hand gently on his arm and the look on his face softened.

'Is this really happening?' he asked himself.

"Today was the first day in months I have felt happy," she had now grabbed his hand and forced him to uncross his arms, "and that was because of you. You make me want to enjoy life. You make me want to be the person I really want to be. No more hiding behind bookworm Hermione and I surly won't be hiding behind that door anymore." She kissed him before he could say anything and they had become so wrapped up in each other, literally, that they had forgotten that their friends were standing there watching.

The clapping began slowly, and then it was followed by cheers and whistles. "Finally! It took you two long enough!" Ginny shrieked with glee. The two turned around, still wrapped in each others arms, their faced beamed with shining smiles and red faces.

"I'm sorry," was the last thing she said before she kissed him again gently.

"This isn't a joke is it?" he didn't want to question it, but this seemed to be the way her game was played.

"No."

"I think I might love you," he whispered loud enough for only her to hear.

She blushed bright red and looked at her feet as she whispered, "I think I might love you too."

"Well, I think it's time we all headed back to our dormitories," Nick spoke up and winked at Hermione.

As Nick was about to take his last step through the portrait hole, he looked back and saw Hermione was right behind him. "Thank you," she hugged him. "You were my first love and I know it was hard for you see all of this. I know things have been hard for you and I haven't been a very good friend to you. I am here if you need me. And may your life with my cousin be very happy," she kissed his cheek and then the portrait door closed.

"Cousin?" Draco had one eyebrow raised.

"Casey is my cousin, Snape is my uncle, boy there is a lot I have to tell you," Hermione grabbed his hand and led him upstairs in a daze.

When they reached the top of the staircase, he grabbed her waist and kissed her fiercely. "Goodnight Hermione," he whispered in her ear and turned to go to his room.

"Wait!" she was a bit louder than she had hoped for. "I thought maybe," he turned to look at her curiously, "you might want to join me in my room tonight." The snogging began gently, but heated up as they moved toward her room. Their fingers were racing and left a trail of clothes to Hermione's bed. The pent up sexual frustration had finally been released between the two Heads and all of the pain and suffering that had been experienced over the past few months was left behind to deal with another day.

**WOW! I apologize for making you wait 2 ½ years for this chapter! I noticed that people were still reading and decided that even if I don't get to write another chapter to add onto the end of this one, at least this should be satisfactory as an ending. (It may be the end, but it may not be!) Thanks for reading and I hope this makes the cliffhanger a little bit less annoying. ******** Thanks again for reading and let me know what you think. **


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